Booth-level workers from UP to help run BJP show
to replicate the massive poll win in Uttar Pradesh assembly elections in Delhi MCD polls, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has engaged a team of party workers from the neighbouring state to run its campaign.
A party leader said around 150 state and district level officer bearers , who played a significant role in UP elections, have been deployed in seven districts for coordination at booth level for April 23 MCD polls.
“We have UP’s successful model before us. It worked wonderfully there and we got a historic mandate because of the efforts made by our booth workers who spread the message of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. We are sharing our experience of booth management with our colleagues here,” said UP BJP secretary Chaudhary Devendra Singh.
He said small units have been constituted in districts -- Chandni Chowk, Shahdara, Naveen Shahdara, Mayur Vihar, Keshavpuram, Karol Bagh, and north-east Delhi -- for efficient campaign.
Apart from monitoring booth activities, they have also been entrusted with bridging differences among party leaders. “They are working with grassroots workers and also seeking feedback and suggestion from people on the ground. If they come across an issue, they send a report to the senior leadership,” said another party leader.
“We are also convincing those party workers who are contesting against party’s official candidate,” said former MLA from Meerut, Amit Agarwal.
A team of leaders from Haryana has been roped in to manage rest of the seven districts—New Delhi, North-West, West Delhi, Outer, South Delhi, Najafgarh and Mehrauli. Former Delhi chief Satish Upadhyay on Wednesday criticised the Congress and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), saying both are responsible for the prevailing mess and corruption in the city. He said it was “the Congress which had laid the foundation of corruption and its legacy is being carried by Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal”.
During the first leg of his campaign for the Delhi MCD polls, Congress MP Shashi Tharoor met morning walkers at South Delhi’s Jahanpanah city forest on Wednesday. Tharoor expressed concern over the deteriorating condition of MCD schools.
Mentioning the dipping student-teachers ratio in corporation schools, he said , “It is a matter of shame that more than 50,000 students quit primary schools under corporation in the last three years.”
If elected, he said, Congress will form an expert group after coming to power to improve the condition of schools. He proposed forming a group of people having national and international experience to improve the quality of education civic schools.
“Neither the corporation schools have enough number of teachers, nor the existing teachers are getting their salaries on time,” he said. Tharoor also said that the Congress would provide free health insurance for all students of these schools.
HTC