The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Mysuru Urban plans to replicate the strategy of its counterpart in Gujarat for micro-level electoral management during the forthcoming Assembly elections.
It is toying with the idea of appointing ‘Page Pramukhs’ who will be in-charge of each page of the electoral roll during the campaign in the three Assembly segments in Mysuru Urban. This is to offset the lack of charismatic mass leaders in constituencies in the BJP unlike in the Congress and the Janata Dal (Secular) who have local heavy weights to contend with and shore up their party fortunes.
Senior BJP functionaries in the district told The Hindu that the plan is an extension of the earlier approach of appointing ‘Booth Pramukhs’ where there used to be ‘10 youths for each booth’. But the Page Pramukhs are expected to provide the party better depth in terms of voter outreach.
“Each page of the electoral roll will have about 20 to 25 voters name complete with photographs and address and the Page Pramukhs appointed by the party will be responsible for meeting these voters, interacting with them, campaigning for the party, etc,” according to the party functionaries.
But sources say the concept of Page Pramukhs can at best be tested and tried at a few booths. This is because the BJP neither has the organisational network or strength in the region to cover all the booths in the three constituencies of Krishnaraja, Narasimharaja and Chamaraja in Mysuru Urban.
763 polling booths
For example, there are nearly 763 polling booths in the three constituencies of Mysuru urban and assuming there are about 20 addresses in each page of the electoral roll at the booth level, the BJP would have to draft nearly 30,000 volunteers or supporters for campaigning at the micro-level.
Internal factionalism
In addition, the party is beset with internal factionalism with too many aspirants who provide an impression of a divided house and securing the services of even a fraction of the required workers to campaign for the official candidate is improbable.
Yet, micro-level booth management through constant engagement with the voters is reckoned to be the best hope for the BJP in the absence of strong local leadership. Meanwhile, the rank and file expect the BJP’s strategy to be finalised and streamlined during the visit of the party’s national president Amit Shah later this month when he will hold extensive interactions with booth-level workers.
