New Delhi: The Bharatiya Janata Party may be finding it hard to decide on its candidates from Delhi for the Lok Sabha elections, but it has already started doing its bit to garner support for the prime ministerial hopeful in the state. This time the party is trying to win over an unconventional electorate - the Muslims. Its state minority cell kick-started a campaign called 'Modi for Muslims' on Saturday.
The convention which will be held in all seven constituencies saw around 500-600 Muslims from North East Delhi attend the function. "This program will help us reach out to minorities. We'll target all seven constituencies and spread Modi's message across the community," says state's minority cell head Atif Rashid.
Not just the minorities, the BJP is targeting women voters as well. BJP's Mahila Morcha has already started a campaign to reach out to women voters across the state. Under this programme women workers of the BJP are holding meetings and interacting with people of each district everyday.
The youth wing of the BJP is also not far behind, donning Modi caps and T-shirts these young volunteers can be seen across metro stations and colleges campaigning for Narendra Modi. The state unit has also roped in engineering pass-outs to reach out to the youth.
To take on the AAP, which saw massive promotions through party chief Arvind Kejriwal's posters plastered on auto-rickshaws throughout the city in the last Assembly elections, the BJP has also roped in around 2000 autos to carry Modi's messages. "These autos will carry huge cut-outs of Narendra Modi and will convey Modi ji's message to the common man," says Harish Khurana, spokesperson Delhi BJP.
But fears of the AAP hampering its prospects in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections are palpable amongst the workers. Especially with a change of guard in the state unit, the cadre isn't particularly enthused. Dr Harsh Vardhan who has taken over as the new state unit President hasn't taken many significant decisions yet and many workers are worried about a reshuffle after the change of guard. Though Vardhan, the president of Delhi BJP says they are confident of a victory and that AAP factor doesn't count. "After AAP ran away from power after 49 days, they have been thoroughly exposed."
But despite of the party's claims the fact remains that the AAP is still a huge threat to the party, especially after the debutant party's performance in the Delhi elections. Will the BJP be able to bring back its core middle class support base from AAP and add Muslims and women to its vote bank, through its innovative campaign strategy, we'll know only when the ballot box opens.
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