Saffron Party mulls sporting connect with youths

LUCKNOW : When a three-day wrestling championship was organised in Amethi recently, many took it to be a novel move by the local MP to connect with her Lok Sabha constituency. And in the run-up to the 2022 UP polls, many more such sporting events would be held across Uttar Pradesh as the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) gears up to connect with youths in the state’s countryside.

These local events would be organised by the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM), the youth arm of the BJP, and the winners would be felicitated.

“Probably, this sporting-connect with youths in rural areas would begin by October end,” said a BJP leader.

Asked if any particular sport competition would be organised, a BJP leader said, “The plan is to find out from the people of the region where we host the event, and as to which sport, they would like to engage in.”

In the urban areas, too, the BJP would hold meetings to connect with the youths. “Here, the party would hold youth meets featuring educated youths who would be roped in to connect with youths at the crossroads of the ideological divide or the ones who like the BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s leadership, but aren’t vocal about it,” a party leader said. These youth meets would probably be held in December.

These decisions were reached at a meeting of the party leadership that also featured union minister Anurag Thakur.

The BJP’s media team too has been galvanised. “We must react quickly to any propaganda by the opposition,” Thakur reportedly told the BJP’s media team during his quick daylong visit to the party office in Lucknow on Wednesday.

Thakur is a key member of the BJP’s election panel for UP that is headed by union education minister Dharmendra Pradhan.

Before this, party’s national general secretary (organisation) BL Santhosh too had met the party’s media team in July and tasked them with the responsibility of effectively presenting the party’s achievements.

The BJP’s youth-connect campaign comes amid a campaign by the state’s main opposition Samajwadi Party (SP) to galvanise youths. The party has named state secretary Subhash Yaduvansh, an OBC, as the co-incharge of the party’s youth wing.