The Swachh Bharat Abhiyan initiated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi has brought about some change in the way BJP contestants are going about their campaign in Jaipur municipal elections.
Fearing public resentment, party candidates are spending extra money to clean up the litter left behind during campaigning in residential localities.
Many leaders have reportedly hired sweepers, while others have created a special cell of their supporters to undertake the task.
“The leaders will have to do it as their PM has initiated this campaign. The exercise started when a few voters objected to the posters and pamphlets littered by the supporters of a candidate during campaigning in a locality,” said a senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader.
“They called up the candidate and threatened to vote against him for this nonsense.
Understanding the situation, the leader deputed supporters immediately to clean up the locality,” the leader added.
BJP office bearers said the incident caught public attention and all their candidates in the city started cleaning up after campaigning. The leaders are now taking credit for this novel initiative in their respective wards to score over Congress candidate.
“Our PM has started Swachh Bharat Abhiyan and we are bound to follow it, unlike Congress party. People are very happy over this and they have assured us full support. Many times my supporters can be seen picking up litter spread by Congress party leaders during their campaigning,” said a BJP candidate.
Senior leaders who are the in charge of wards have arranged teams of sweepers in their areas.
“We have several wards under our jurisdiction. In these wards the leaders have arranged sweepers themselves and in two ward I have made arrangements at the party level,” said Suman Sharma, BJP leader.
Meanwhile, some city residents are advising Congress candidates to follow BJP leaders in the cleanliness drive.
“The BJP leaders are bound to do it due to obvious reasons. But it’s also the moral responsibility of Congress leaders and they should copy BJP leaders,” said Deepesh Jain, resident of Bapu Nagar locality.
