Eye on 2024: BJP takes head start with cadre coaching in UP
Barely a month since forming the government again in Uttar Pradesh on March 25, the ruling BJP has set its sights on the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.
The party has already begun holding cadre training camps where its foot soldiers are being told to guard against ‘complacency’ in the time-period leading to the parliamentary polls.
The party think tank fears that a series of spectacular wins since 2014 Lok Sabha polls, with the 2022 UP poll win being the crowning glory, could make the cadre ‘complacent’.
Thus, in these cadre camps first round of these camps concluded on Saturday and now those trained would be tasked with training others - BJP workers are being told how the party’s current glorious run of wins has taken some doing.
RSS and BJP old guards, who have witnessed the days of ‘struggle’, were also present in these training camps to help the cadres reinforce the need to get ready for another big mission (2024 LS polls).
In the first round of these training-cum-orientation camps of around 100 cadres each, leaders talked about the party’s history to ensure the foot soldiers remain focused. They also spoke about the early days when BJP had just two MPs and was mocked at as a “hum do (our two)” party, the emergency days, and how gradually the change has come about after years of struggle.
“The cadres were told about the party’s history, the ongoing welfare schemes of the government and ways to connect better with the masses. It’s an effort to help cadres become even better,” said BJP’s Barabanki district chief Shashank Kushmesh.
Deputy chief ministers Keshav Prasad Maurya and Brajesh Pathak, senior ministers and party functionaries also shared tips in these workshops which would now be followed by smaller ones where those trained will coach others.
These training workshops are also being used by party functionaries, including present and former ministers, party functionaries, to list out the various pro-poor welfare schemes launched by the BJP governments at the centre and in UP.
“The Prime Minister has focused on 100 per cent coverage of these schemes. In UP, under the leadership of chief minister Yogi Adityanath, these schemes are being accorded top priority. Reaching the still unreached is also a priority,” said Praveen Garg, a businessman, who is associated with party’s Lucknow unit.
“The message to the cadres is that the government and the organisation are working in sync and, being a part of the ruling party, they have to gather feedback from the masses and convey it to the party to ensure that corrective measures, if required, are taken,” said a BJP cadre requesting anonymity.
The cadre coaching camps were divided into various sessions -- one of which was on ‘badli hui paristhiti main bhajapa ka dayitva (the changed role of BJP in the new scenario).’
Key BJP leaders, who were ministers in the first Yogi Adityanath government but didn’t find a place in the Yogi government 2.0, like lawmaker Gopal Tandon and Mahendra Singh, have addressed these training sessions. The cadres are also being told of India’s growing global profile under Modi, the air strikes in Pakistan, Ukraine-Russia conflict and how their effort would also be part of an exercise to make the country a ‘vishwaguru (global leader)’.