|HT|
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has planned to convene as many as 10 meetings at every booth in Uttarakhand ahead of the crucial assembly elections next month, people familiar with the development said. These meetings will focus on the saffron party's preparation, progress and coordination with all voters of each booth till the date of the elections. Uttarakhand has a total of 10,000 booths across the state.
Candidates who have been fielded by the BJP for Uttarakhand polls have been directed to work in close coordination with each booth president and person in-charge of a page of voters' list (also known as ‘panna pramukh’). The in-charge is the first point of contact for voters in the saffron party's structure of election management.
Furthermore, the candidates have been told to work towards spreading information regarding various benefits of the state and the Centre to the common people of Uttarakhand.
The Election Commission on Saturday extended the ban on physical rallies and roadshows in all poll-bound states till January 31 in wake of the Covid-19 situation in the country. However, relaxation has been provided for physical public meetings of all political parties or contesting candidates for two phase 1 and 2 starting January 28 and February 1, respectively. Door-to-door campaigns have been capped at a maximum of 10 people, up from the initial five. Keeping the latest order of the Commission in mind, the BJP has planned to deploy an IT expert in every assembly.
The saffron party has so far released one list of 59 candidates of the 70 constituencies of the Uttarakhand assembly. The remaining 11 names are yet to be announced by the ruling camp. Chief minister Pushkar Singh Dhami has been fielded from Khatima constituency, which has been a BJP stronghold since 2012.
Moreover, the BJP is likely to release its manifesto for the Uttarakhand assembly later in the day. It has been formed on the central government's ‘Sabka Saath, Sabka Vishwas and Sabka Vikas’ theme.
The saffron party is striving to come back to power in the northern hill state. In 2017 Uttarakhand assembly elections, it had won as many as 57 of the 70 seats. This year, the polls will take place on February 14 in a single phase and counting of the votes will be held on March 10.
(Except for the headline and the pictorial description, this story has not been edited by THE DEN staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)