With an eye on upcoming Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is likely to make a major announcement in a large political rally set to be held at Lucknow on January 2.
According to an Economic Times report, it is expected that the prime minister will offer a headline-grabbing policy move aimed at generating feel-good after the 50-day ‘trial’ period of demonetisation gets over on December 30.
The report quoted BJP leaders saying that they are working towards achieving a “record” attendance for the Lucknow event. The party’s 1.38 lakh booth committees, each of which may have up to 20 cadres, are key to ensuring a huge crowd.
One BJP leader said that the plan is to ensure attendance by most booth committee members and ask them to bring small groups of people with them. Meanwhile, BJP President Amit Shah has been holding booth-level meetings.
In order to rev up its poll machinery in the state, the party has spent Rs 5 crore – through cheques and bank transfers – on buying 1,600 motorcycles kitted out with a public address system and a box for storing campaign material.
According to the report, each bike rider will be asked to contact at least 100 people every day. The bikes will supplement 400 GPS-equipped video vans that the party already has travelling in the state.
Moreover, the number of hoardings across the state has been increased from 2,000 to 3,500, and will cover each of UP’s 402 assembly elections. There are 15,000 locations in the state for voters to drop in letters detailing expectations from a new government.
