With the campaigning for the Delhi Assembly elections entering the last leg, political parties are all set for what is going to be a high-octane contest.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah, who is personally overseeing the poll campaigning in Delhi, is believed to be hold meetings with constituency coordinators till around 2 am in the party office, receiving feedback on the campaign and the party’s prospects.
The BJP has not yet named their chief ministerial candidate. Although it was earlier announced that the saffron party will fight the Delhi assembly elections under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, it is Shah who has become the face of the campaign.
A report in The Times of India suggests that PM Modi has taken a back seat after an initial Delhi rally, where he claimed that the government has had no discussion on a nation-wide NRC. This has made Shah the face of the campaign, a clear departure from 2013.
Shah is seen addressing smaller gatherings in constituencies, trying to establish a connect with the voter, something not achievable by mass rallies.
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Besides, he has been engaging with the party cadre on a daily basis, which has boosted their morale. Shah has also been active on social media, not only tweeting proactively, but also monitoring party tweets and interacting with “cyber warriors”, which have been deployed at several rungs, to counter opposition, especially from the ruling AAP government in Delhi.
At the time of the announcement of the election dates, the saffron party’s campaign seemed to be floundering. But Shah seemingly immersive himself in the rallies, has taken the stakes high for the BJP. He even addressed a joint rally with Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar in Burari, one of Delhi’s largest constituencies, in an attempt to settle speculations that absence of massive rallies and PM’s lacklustre participation is because of a perceived upper hand of AAP in Delhi.
Sources told the newspaper that after completing the official assignments, Home Minister Amit Shah takes to campaigning, holding three-to-four roadshows every day. A party functionary said the meetings to discuss the party strategy start late in the evening and go on way past midnight.
Addressing a crowd of 5000 or 50,000 irrespective of the venue, Shah’s strategy primarily is focussing on attacking incumbent chief minister Arvind Kejriwal, highlighting the performance of central schemes under PM Modi’s leadership, and accusing the opposition of appeasement politics in the context of protests against the citizenship act, particularly in Shaheen Bagh, in Delhi.
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Meanwhile, the ruling AAP has decided to carry out 8,000 public meetings in the last leg of campaigning before the February 8 polls. Kejriwal’s party has also decided to organise 3,000 nukkad nataks and flash-mob performances across Delhi and target at least 50 lakh families with their door-to-door campaign.
"AAP volunteers will knock on the doors of 50 lakh families living in Delhi within 7 days. Two AAP volunteers have been mobilized to carry out this work – 20,000 volunteers, which is 300 per assembly, from existing party structure in Delhi – and 5,000 new volunteers, mostly students and young professionals who have volunteered for re-electing Arvind Kejriwal as the chief minister of Delhi again," a party leader told CNN News18.
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