BJP launches drive to boost voting amid dip in MP Phase 1

Bhopal: BJP has intensified its drive to boost voting in the coming three phases of Lok Sabha elections in Madhya Pradesh in the wake of the dip in polling percentage in the maiden round of elections in the state, held on April 19.

Senior BJP leaders and cluster in-charges of the party have intensified the drive to mobilize the workers, particularly the booth level cadres, to start door-to-door campaigns to draw the voters to the polling booths on the polling day, sources said on Thursday.

The party leaders have been holding workers’ meets at district, block and panchayat levels to mobilise grass root level workers to intensify the mass contact programme with an objective to increase the polling percentage in the next three phases of elections, a senior BJP functionary said.

Sources said that the BJP leaders have been asked to focus on the national issues, instead of local issues, during their mass contact programme.

State BJP secretary Rajneesh Agrawal however claimed that the decrease in voting in the first phase of elections in Madhya Pradesh has not impacted the BJP’s vote share.

He cited the increase in voting percentage in the first phase polling in the neighbouring BJP- ruled states like Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh to drive his point home.

Even the polling percentage in Bastar (ST) seat, the lone Lok Sabha constituency that went to polls in the first phase polling in Chhattisgarh, has also not witnessed a dip in voting, he said.

“The Congress was missing in many places and even there were no polling agents of Congress in many booths in the first phase of elections in Madhya Pradesh. The dip in voting in the first phase polling was due to decrease in vote share of Congress”, Mr Agrawal claimed.

Six LS seats went to polls in the first phase polling in Madhya Pradesh on April 19.

“My study on the matter has led to disclosure that the ‘Jewar’ festival which begins on the first day of the ‘Navratri’ in some tribal belts of Madhya Pradesh marking the sowing season and continues for nine days had contributed to the dip in polling in these areas.

Besides, the summer heat as well as the complacency in the BJP cadres induced by the party’s ‘400 (seats) plus’ slogan has also contributed to it”, the BJP functionary told this newspaper, unwilling to be quoted.

In Chhattisgarh, the BJP has intensified the mass contact programme to further increase polling in the next two phases of elections in the state.

Meanwhile, Union home minister Amit Shah is scheduled to arrive here late on Thursday night.

He is scheduled to address two public meetings in the state on Friday.