'Overseas Friends of BJP' in US to make 25 lakh calls to India during elections; send 3,000 Indian-Americans to campaign

Washington: The 'Overseas Friends of BJP' in the US has made an elaborate plan to make more than 25 lakh calls to people across India urging them to vote and re-elect Prime Minister Narendra Modi for a third term with a record 400 plus seats in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, according to community leaders.

'Overseas Friends of BJP' in the USA has also made plans to send a strong delegation of more than 3,000 Indian Americans who will campaign for the party and its candidates in various capacities across India.

The BJP has also created more than two dozen teams across the US to make specific calls and help in developing strategies according to different states and languages.

“We started preparations from December itself and we are picking up speed this month. In February, we are starting a kickoff event all over the United States -- probably around 20-22 cities cutting across 18 States. We are trying to gather not only the sympathisers and volunteers of 'Overseas Friends of BJP', but also the general community, the community leaders, and the community who want to see Modi 3.0. So they will be participating in that,” OFBJP USA President Adapa Prasad told PTI in a recent interview.

OFBJP USA, he said, will be presenting the achievements of the Modi government in the last five years and also the 10 years cumulatively and how India's position in the global community of the nations in the current situation, and also US India relations and the domestic side, how overall growth has happened.

“We have already prepared the PowerPoint slides. We have PDF documents to distribute,” he said.

OFBJP is also working to organise “Chai Pe Charcha” in towns and cities across the US, he said.

“We will gather local people. We will discuss these things about the overall development agenda of BJP and Modi. We will urge all our NRI brothers and Indian diaspora brothers to call their friends and families to vote for the BJP. It's not for asking why just vote for BJP. They will be telling them why they should be voting for BJP and they will list out all the achievements of the BJP government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi,” he said.

The goal, this time, he said, is to get 400 seats for the BJP and its allies.

“For general elections, there is already a lot of enthusiasm. Just like in India, it is for Modi and BJP. We will be having call centres almost at the county (district) level. We will be calling and we will be dividing this by state. There are Hindi-speaking states and there are regional-speaking states. So for example, if it is Karnataka, we have a Karnataka speaking people who will be calling there, if it is Telangana, we will be having Telugu speaking and so on. Marathi, Tamil we have everybody. We have NRIs covering, volunteering already from hailing, from Jammu and Kashmir to Kerala,” Prasad said.

“I'm expecting almost 2.5 million calls,” Prasad said, adding that this year OFBJP is expecting to send a delegation of 3,000 Indian Americans to campaign for the party in the general elections.

There is coordination on this between OFBJP USA and the BJP in India.

The OFBJP USA is also planning to hold car rallies in different cities during the elections to create awareness about the developments and achievements in India in the last 10 years, he said.