Eye on ’19 polls, BJP unleashes volunteers
With an eye on the 2019 electoral battle and also as part of BJP’s strategy to expand its organisational base, party president Amit Shah has deputed ‘vistaraks’ to expand its reach of thoughts and Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s message of ‘sabka saath sabka vikas.’ Taken from the RSS model, ‘vistaraks’ are volunteers but not fulltimers like the ‘pracharaks’ and also consists of professionals. The BJP has roped in hundreds of ‘vistaraks’ to assist it in expanding its base across the country.
Also, the much awaited re-organisation of Mr Shah’s team could take place soon with a new organisational general secretary, a post held by a RSS man.
These vistaraks have been assigned the task to convey BJP’s message and highlight central government’s schemes and apprise the party leadership of the “real situation” on the ground.
These vistaraks will spend atleast one month at the mandal level, meeting party workers, leaders and supporters to ascertain the issues troubling the party, which would then be resolved by the leadership. Mr Shah himself will be visiting state units from next month for a reality check of the party’s “real organisational” strength.
Mr Shah wants party’s state units to remain battle-ready before 2019 and also for the Assembly elections in states including Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh and those scheduled for next year.
Speculation is rife that ahead of the next national executive meeting of the BJP, Mr Shah’s new team could be declared. Some new faces would also be added in Mr Shah’s team as some of its members are now part of the Adityanath Yogi-led Uttar Pradesh government. Uttarakhand chief minister Trivendra Rawat was also part of the central team.
A booth is an administrative unit, followed by a ward and then a mandal. Depending on the size of
the state, a mandal could consist of 80 to 100 booths.
Also, office bearers at the mandal level in each state have also been asked to ‘swap’ their work with another mandal’s office bearers to understand wide ranging issues from their respective state. They have been asked to work at a different mandal for atleast a month.