BJP’s Modi promotion in Mumbai colleges a hit
Founders Shyam Sapre and Omprakash Chouhan have enrolled 10,000 pupils from 35 colleges.
The presence of mind of a few Bharatiya Janata Party leaders has brought the party 10,000 student supporters all over Mumbai. Shyam Sapre and Omprakash Chouhan launched a campaign to promote the party’s Prime Ministerial candidate Narendra Modi in city colleges in the first week of December. Within two months, they enrolled 10,000 students from 35 colleges as Modi supporters and 200 students as full time workers to promote Modi for the Lok Sabha elections. This is the only campaign of its kind in the country for Modi.
Chouhan, a resident of Chembur, came up with the idea to launch a campaign for Modi in colleges when a student named Sanjay Yadav asked him whether he could campaign for the party. Yadav told Chouhan that Modi’s style of functioning had impressed him. Chouhan sensed that Modi was popular among students and convinced his colleague Shyam Sapre to launch the Modi Yuva Shakti (MYS) campaign.
Sapre, 50, and Chouhan, 42, went from college to college with campaign posters and literature. Sapre, a small scale businessman from Girgaum, spent his own money to prepare canopies and other material for the campaign. “The students’ response was overwhelming. They gave us their names, addresses, phone numbers, Facebook IDs and Twitter handles. We have also registered at least 1,000 Muslim students who want to see Modi as the next PM,” Sapre said.
The MYS campaign’s success has led senior party leaders to send it large scale financial assistance. “This is very encouraging. We are planning to take the campaign outside Mumbai too,” Chouhan said.
Yadav, 21, a journalism student, is leading the campaign from the front. He has organised several small get-togethers in residential areas to discuss Modi and his vision. “I think Modi is a man of development. He has a plan for youngsters. I decided to join the campaign because I believe that Modi can give us prosperity through job opportunities,” he said.
BJP leaders found that almost 3,000 students who supported Modi were not voters.
They helped them enroll. MYS convener Virendra Pande is planning to send the campaign’s data to Modi. “We will request Modi to hold a rally in Mumbai exclusively for these students,” he said.