1.5 million BJP cadre to fan out across India before poll

New Delhi: With an eye on the 2019 elections, the BJP is all set to unleash over 1.5 million party cadres trained over the last four years to tackle the Opposition and the media, woo the electorate and “transform the country”. These trained cadres have also been asked to “check EVMs through a mock poll, erasing the mock poll and staying in touch with Election Commission officials”.

The workers have been asked to refrain from any sort of “ideological distortion”. Besides nationalism and core issues, the trained cadres have been asked to enhance their dialogue with the electorate. “The BJP expects that this large pool of trained party workers will play a major role in transforming the country... and in the 2019 polls this traning programme will have a huge impact,” BJP general secretary P. Murlidhar Rao said after the recent completion of the four-year training programme called the “Deen Dayal Upadhyay Prashikshan Mahabh-iyan”.

Major stress has been laid on booth management. For the BJP, “since an election is a battle... 50 per cent victory in this battle depends on planning and 50 per cent on the groundwork”. Besides other booth management, the party workers have been asked to be in “regular touch with distinguished and influnetial persons in the area” and “keep a close watch on the activities and work of the people of other parties”.

For the BJP, “forced conversion” remains one of the major challenges before the nation, and the workers have been asked to create awareness over the issue. The literature distributed by the party states: “Conversion is a politically sensitive matter in our country. because some political parties either promote conversions or extend mute support”; and that the “speed of conversions has been so high in some states that it has completely changed their demography, and people in such states are agitated and angry, (and) may prove explosive any time”.

While the BJP is often accused of unleashing a majority of trolls in the social media, the tract “Media Approach and Strategy” said it is “preferable not to engage with those trolling you”. It added: “Remember, if you fight  with a pig in the mud, the pig will enjoy... and you will come out dirty”. It also described trolls as “stalkers in real life”.

The BJP, which relies heavily on the social media, said in its literature for party functionaries: “The social media has captured the imagination of Indian youth, and it was evident in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections.”

In its audiovisual section, the “Media Approach” paper has rated Republic TV as the leading channel, followed by Times Now, CNN News 18 and India Today TV. At the bottom of the list is NDTV.