BJP hopes to ride Modi wave to Parliament from Tamil Nadu

Narerndra Modi was a failry frequent visitor to Tamil Nadu in 2013. Here he is seen in conversation with political strategist and journalist ‘Cho’?Ramaswamy. — DC

Chennai: The BJP appears to be no longer an outcaste in Tamil Nadu politics and with the increase in its stock, the saffron party need not have the sinking feeling of going solo in the Lok Sabha elections next year.

Despite lacking the traditional vote bank, compared to the major Dravidian parties that have created these over the years, the BJP here hopes to ride on the Modi wave to Parliament from here.

As the party steps into 2014, it cannot forget the shock over the killing of two of its leaders within a year, including state general secretary V. Ramesh.

It hopes to make it to the national capital thanks to its prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi who set the ball rolling by addressing a massive conference at Tiruchy.

The party is confident of winning a good number of seats on its own, and also with the help of the PMK, which could help in garnering Vanniyar votes, and the MDMK, too, by whipping up Tamil sentiments.

Another significant player, actor-politician Vijayakanth, is likely to join the BJP camp soon, says a senior leader in the party.

The southern states could help the party reach the magic number of 272+ seats that it requires on its own, and the alliance that it cobbles together would ensure the formation of the government after the general elections in 2014, feels the think-tank in the party.

The BJP believes that it can reclaim its footprints in the region and even expand through its allies.

It hopes to win more numbers in addition to Kanyakumari, Coimbatore, Tiruchy, Tirupur and the Nilgiris Lok Sabha constituencies that the BJP had won in the 1998 and 1999 Lok Sabha polls.

Presently, the rank and file of the party is going from village to village, highlighting Modi’s achievements, Congress misrule, need for a regime change at the Centre, besides popularising the lotus symbol, through its novel campaign: Veeduthorum Modi, Ullamthorum Thamarai (Modi in every household and lotus in every heart).

Through this padayatra, targeting to cover about 12,618 village panchayats, the party hopes to get closer to people, especially the rural voters, in the state with the hope of a breakthrough in the state. Saffron party, once an also-ran in the state, is no more a political outcaste.

Next: ‘Modi in every household, Lotus in every heart’ claims saffron brigade

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We have high hopes on Bangalore: AAP

Bangalore: Kundan Singh, founder member of Aam Aadmi Party and coordinator of an awareness rally in the city on Sunday, spoke to Deccan Chronicle at length on the plans of the party in the Karnataka after its stupendous success in Delhi.

Also read: Prashant Bhushan meets VS Achuthanandan, seeks guidance

How was the response to the bike rally on Sunday?

We had sent out messages to all our members and volunteers through mail, Facebook and Twitter. We expected around 200 bikes, but we were surprised to see around 250 two-wheelers and 50 cars at the Freedom Park, the starting point. Around 600 people took part in the rally and many of them joined on the way as we went to different parts of the city. We had distributed data entry forms to all pillion riders, who collected basic information from the people who joined us on the way. We collected information from 2,000 people.

Is AAP’s strategy different in Bangalore, as compared to Delhi, to get the support of the people?

Most of the people in Bangalore are tech-savvy and connected online, and it is a big advantage. We have working committees in all the 28 assembly constituencies of the city. They have groups of aam aadmis who have taken the responsibility of leading the political revolution.

How is AAP planning to attract supporters?

We have started our membership drives in crowded areas, like malls, Metro stations and public places. Since all of us are working professionals, we make sure that we spend at least two to three hours every day for the party. To make people aware of the struggle against corruption, our volunteers have started performing street plays. As we have learned from Delhi elections, door-to-door campaign is the best way to connect with people and we have started it in all assemblies constituencies of the city, which traditional political parties do only 15 days before the elections.

How many new party members have joined in the city after the Delhi phenomenon?

We are conducting registrations in three ways: Our members go on drives to register people from public places using a Rs 10 membership form, we have offices in seven assemblies to register new people and registration through our website www.aapkarnataka.org. Since the Delhi elections, a large number of people are registering on our national website. As Karnataka was only the second state to have the highest number of donors, we believe that we have a large number of supporters here. The existing volunteer base of 12,000 has swelled to 20,000 plus after the Delhi results.

What are party's short-term and long-term goals in Bangalore?

We are not focused only on the 2014 elections. We have not yet decided on how many seats we could contest from in Karnataka, but we will go for maximum number of seats. We believe in the concept of Swaraj and we will form our manifesto based on the needs of the people when we go for door-to-door campaigning.

In Delhi, we had 70 manifestos for all 70 assembly constituencies and they were decided by the people from respective localities. In Bangalore, we have different segments of people, so we are working on categorising their problems and will finalise the manifestos later. We are trying to know what the people want and how we can work for it together.

How many techies have enrolled themselves into the party?

We have separate Facebook pages for different assembly constituencies. We have a separate Google group in each assembly constituency to communicate with each other on local events. We have named our BTM assembly Facebook page as Namma BTM, AAP Ka BTM. We have a separate Whatsapp group for each assembly constituency. We have a common Facebook page for the entire city, which is AAP Bangalore, and for the state, AAP Karnataka. We have Facebook pages for other districts too.

Is AAP targeting Bangalore after Delhi?

Besides a large number of people donating for AAP, a big group of volunteers from the state went to Delhi for campaigning. Data entry work, responding to mails and queries, web moderation, email moderation as well as offline support like writing post cards to Delhiites and calling campaign for Delhiites happened from Bangalore. 

As Bangaloreans have already participated and supported AAP in Delhi elections, we hope that we will make this political revolution a huge success in the city.

How is the coordination happening betw­een Delhi and Bangalore?

Party national executive members, like Prashanth Bhushan and Yogendra Yadav, recently visited Bangalore after the Delhi elections to ensure that whatever happened in Delhi should repeat in Bangalore.

Next: New age parties turn city political

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