Amit Shah tweaks Bengal BJP’s campaign strategy ahead of polls

With the Assembly elections round the corner Union Home Minister Amit Shah during his latest visit to West Bengal gave a three-step instruction on public outreach to the state BJP leadership.

BJP sources said that Shah asked the state BJP leadership to make “key modifications” to their campaign strategy during a late-night organisational review meeting on Thursday.

State BJP insiders said that Shah asked the leaders to hold more small street corner meetings at the booth level during the party’s Parivartan Yatra in Bengal.

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“He asked us to take the yatra more into suburban towns and villages and mingle with the voters at the grassroots level,” a senior State BJP leader said.

He also said that the Home Minister instructed the state leaders to focus more on door-to-door campaigning instead of large rallies. The BJP leader said that Shah was of the opinion that the effort and time required for organising a large rally could be used to hold several small public meetings at the booth level which would pay rich dividends to the party in the Assembly elections.

“The Home Minister said that instead of bringing people to our rallies we have to go to their doorsteps,” he said.

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State BJP sources further revealed that Shah asked the state leaders to involve more booth workers in the Paivartan Yatra instead of keeping it limited mainly to State and Central leaders.

They further revealed that Shah had asked to assign specific duties to those who have joined the BJP from other parties. Earlier Shah had asked the state BJP leaders to rope in “efficient vote managers” especially from the Trinamool Congress (TMC) the CPI(M).

“Amit Shah had asked us to reach out more to the people. However, we have already started our ‘Grihasampark Abhiyan and Krishak Suraksha Abhiyan’. Now we are trying to get into people’s hearts,” said State BJP president Dilip Ghosh.

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At a meeting with the State BJP’s social media workers Shah set a target for them to reach out to 10 crore people of Bengal with BJP’s ideology and developmental work of the Narendra Modi Government.