BJP wooes ex-soldiers

Hyderabad: Union minister Ravi Shankar Prasad met with retired officers from the armed forces during his visit to the city on Thursday last. The meeting was arranged by city BJP leaders and was meant to brief the former defence personnel regarding Central government schemes. The actual reason was stated to be to seek their votes.

BJP president Amit Shah has asked party leaders to reach out different sections of people, especially opinion makers and retired defence officers, as part of the outreach programme Sampark for Samarthan. Mr Shah asked party leaders to visit the homes of opinion makers and brief them on the Centre’s schemes and as well as the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance government's achievements.

Speaking to this newspaper, Telangana state BJP president K. Laxman, said, “It is a nationwide outreach programme Each BJP leader will reach out to at least 25 opinion makers who are not affiliated to the party and explain the Modi government performance.”

He said that in Telangana state, the job had been allocated to 400 leaders, who have to reach out to 10,000 families by June 11. The target audience includes doctors, advocates, former judges and retired armed forces personnel. 

“Apart from the Central government schemes, important decisions like demonetisation, surgical strike on terrorist launch pads in Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (PoK), administrative reforms among others will be talked about,” Dr Laxman said.

Nation-wide, about 4,000 BJP functionaries, including Chief Ministers and Union ministers down to panchayat members, will contact one lakh people who are recognised names in their fields.

The party has launched the 'Sampark for Samarthan' exercise to mark the fourth anniversary of the Modi government, ahead of 2019.