BJP to launch 'Kisaan Mahaabhiyan' for better connect with

Aiming to establish a better connect with the farmers post demonetisation, the BJP will launch 'Kisaan Mahaabhiyan' during which 'alav sabhas' (bonfire meetings) will be held from January 4, in the run-up to the 2017 Uttar Pradesh Assembly election, the party said today.
The objective of the campaign is to highlight the Centre's achievements in the field of agriculture, along with the party's agenda for the farmers, BJP media in-charge Harish Chandra Srivastava said.
The event will also encompass the "unfulfilled promises" of the SP and BSP governments, he added.
The campaign is proposed to be conducted in two phases, starting with a series of 'alav sabhas' in about 4,000 villages in the state, followed by a district-level culmination in the form of 'Mati Tilak Pratigya' (land oath) meetings to be organised across the 75 districts of Uttar Pradesh, said Srivastava.

The decision to launch the campaign was taken during a high-level meeting with state BJP chief Keshav Prasad Maurya and the party's national vice-president and Uttar Pradesh unit in-charge, Om Mathur.
The campaign is to be kicked off through alav sabhas in 10-20 villages in about 343 constituencies each where the party's 'Kisaan Agenda', benefits of demonetisation, the achievements of the Centre and the "unfulfilled promises" of the SP and BSP governments in the state from 2006-17 will be discussed, said Srivastava.

"Rural and semi-urban districts are in focus for this campaign. The sabhas will serve as a platform to engage with the people in the villages, especially farmers and agricultural labourers, and will help the party understand the major issues being faced by them better," he added.

The sabhas will commence from January 4 and are expected to engage around seven lakh farmers in a span of eight days.
After the completion of the 'alav sabhas', the Mati Tilak Pratigya meetings will be simultaneously conducted in 75 districts on January 13.
This phase will be the high point of the entire campaign where the farmers, along with the major district-level farmers' associations, will be rallied to district-level meetings where BJP leaders, along with the party's candidates from the districts, will take a vow with 'mati' (earth) to fulfil the promises made in the party's agenda.
Around 1.5 lakh farmers will be engaged through these Mati Tilak Pratigya meetings, said Srivastava.