BJP’S trump cards: A devoted social media team and dedicated volunteers
To win a massive mandate in the MCD poll and set the tone among voters of Delhi, a Bharatiya Janata Party core team continuously projected the party’s social schemes and infrastructure development in the national Capital for the last one year.
National vice-president Vinay Sahasrabuddhe, one of the masterminds of BJP’S MCD win, said the campaign strategy focused on integration of the organisation, micro-campaigning (door-to-door, public joints, Metro and buses) via advertisements to promote the work of BJP and criticism of the Aam Aadmi Party and Congress. “Around 50 dedicated people were working round the clock to make this campaign fruitful,” he added.
Amit Malviya, is a critical member of BJP’S ‘election war room’ operated out of the Capital’s crowed Golf Link and BJP state office.
The place has an IT cell, headed by Amit Malviya, a National Head of BJP’S IT department. Malviay takes pride in the party’s online presence, pointing out that BJP’S Facebook page has of lakhs of followers.
The cell sends out at least 10 Whatsapp messages daily, which says get multiplied and eventually reach lakhs of people. “We have 60,000 booth workers and 5,000 volunteers for social media, who religiously share positive issues, cartoons, satires and videos,” said Malviya.
Rajiv Babbar, Kuljeet Singh Chahal and Praveen Shankar Kapoor comprise of the core team of BJP MCD poll campaign and heads of the media managment.
For Babbar, the party’s trump card was a combination of several things: the party symbol, Modi and known faces in the leadership. Moreover, punch line AAP se na ho
payega, Modi se hoga generated a massive response. Nukkad nataks, road shows and 243 ground meetings and the LED rickshaw campaign work out very well in the end.
“We have set up 14 departments and 42 observers to monitor the entire operation and analyse the course of action,” said Babbar.
Tajinder Bagga, Delhi BJP spokesperson who played key role during the campaign said, “The ‘Booth Panch Parmeshwar Sammelan’ organised under the guidance of our national president Amit Shah and the work of these Panch Parmeshwars on the date of polling became the decisive factor.
“In these elections the traditional supporters voted for us and the support of the people of Schedule Castes, Purvanchal, Uttarankhand made our victory unprecedented,” Bagga added. He had raised various issues against AAP, such as the spending of money on samo
sas, the hefty fee to lawyer Ram Jethmalani from the government exchequer and winning of BJP in the AAP’S internal survey that marred the poll prospects of AAP.