BJP to reach out to voters; apprise them of Modi achievements

Barely a week after the stunning bypoll results of Kairana and Noorpur were announced, senior BJP leaders embarked on a mission to reach out to the voters in Uttar Pradesh and inform them about the work done by the Narendra Modi-led government in the last four years.

Called the Vishesh Sampark Abhiyaan (Special Contact Campaign), the 15-day programme, which began on June 1, is likely to witness a number of Union ministers, including Home Minister Rajnath Singh, descending at different places across the state.

They would make an effort to communicate to the public the Centre's achievements in the past 48 months. Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, his deputy Dinesh Sharma, and a number of his ministerial colleagues were likely to reach out to people in different districts.

"Some Union ministers likely to be in the state are Rajnath Singh (in Lucknow), Manoj Sinha (Aligarh on June 13), VK Singh (Varanasi on June 9), Satyapal Singh (Allahabad on June 10), Santosh Gangwar (Agra on June 14), Mahesh Sharma (Faizabad), Shiv Pratap Shukla (Bareilly on June 11) and Krishnaraj (Firozabad on June 7)," Amarpal Maurya, UP co-ordinator of the Vishesh Sampark Abhiyaan, told PTI here today.

He said Adityanath would be going to Gorakhpur, his own citadel, and Varanasi, the parliamentary constituency of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, besides the state capital which is represented in the Lok Sabha by Rajnath Singh.

Deputy Chief Minister Dinesh Sharma was likely to be in Varanasi, while national general secretary Anil Jain was likely to be in Kanpur, he said, adding that even party office bearers of the state unit were assigned tasks under the campaign.

"The party through this campaign aims to reach out to 16,000 families, and the number is increasing," Maurya claimed.

When asked if there was a separate focus on the Lok Sabha and Assembly seats, which the party lost in the bypolls, Maurya said, "This is a nationwide campaign, and is a part of the efforts by the party to reach to its voters."
"The word 'Vishesh' has been prefixed to the campaign, as through this, the party aims to reach to the intellectuals in the society. This is different from the membership drive undertaken by the party."
When asked how the party would ensure that opinion makers help it by ensuring a high polling turnout, Tripathi said, "The interaction through the campaign will help the intellectual class to associate itself with the political process and not stay aloof or isolated from it."