BJP employs ‘armies’ to ensure its victory

Bengaluru: Apart from emotion oozing speeches and development promises, there are other strategies of the BJP to appeal to voters, which function at the grassroots level. “Page Pramukhs” delegated to a certain polling station is one such strategy, wherein an army of party volunteers are assigned with the voters whose names appear on a page of the electoral rolls.

An election booth will have around 1000 voters with the names running to 30-35 pages of electoral rolls. Every volunteer in the army is assigned a single page of the electoral roll and that person has to approach the voters mentioned in that roll, establish a connection and convince them to vote for the BJP.

This method was first tried by the party in Gujarat, after which the party president Amit Shah insisted on using it in Karnataka as well. Party sources say that the volunteers for the “Page Pramukhs” were appointed a couple of months ago and that they will have an orientation session prior to the polls.

Suresh is a “Page Pramukh” in the Anekal constituency and he classifies voters into three categories- those who already support the BJP, those who can be convinced to support the BJP and those who will never support the BJP. He says that after he has broken the ice with the voters assigned to him, he even appeals to other members of their family, their friends and confidantes, creating a shared opinion.

Jayaram Shetty, another member of the army in Bengaluru, says that he maintains contact with the voters assigned to him. He claims that he speaks to them every day and even does small chores for them. The members also form WhatsApp groups to spread the achievements of the local BJP candidate.

Senior party leaders say that these volunteers are required to make sure that the campaigns of the BJP leaders at the apex will reach voters in any corner of the state. It connects the candidates with the voters and increases the support system of the party.