The Bharatiya Janata Party, which has launched an outreach programme involving a door-to-door campaign in villages around Bangalore by young professionals ahead of the Lok Sabha elections, is planning to enrol the services of about 15,000 professionals on voluntary basis to extend the campaign to the entire State. The party’s IT & communication cell is looking at volunteers who are mostly techies, doctors, chartered accountants and lawyers.
At present, about 2,000 such professionals have registered themselves with the party to offer voluntary services. Of them, the services of 800 to 1,000 persons are already being utilised, according to the party’s communication wing convener Channamallikarjuna.
There is an orientation session to guide them on how to go about campaigning in addition to providing them publicity material, like pamphlets. The campaign will focus on BJP’s prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi. In political circles, it is being viewed as a strategy to expand the political base through third-party campaigning.
Most of these professionals campaign only on weekends. The campaign is expected to gain momentum after Deepavali, when more volunteers would be pressed into service.
The party is holding an orientation session for the volunteers in Bangalore on Sunday. An executive committee meeting of the IT and communication cell, which was held in Bangalore on Saturday, reviewed the ongoing campaign.
Addressing the executive committee meeting, the former Minister Arvind Limbavali stressed the need for tapping the full potential of the social media during the Lok Sabha elections. He pointed out that social media had a great role to play in reaching out to people and shaping opinions during the elections. In this context, the IT & communication cell too had a greater responsibility, he said.
