The Congress may be mocking the BJP for charging Rs 5 each from Hyderabadi youth keen on listening to Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, but the saffron party has more ideas up its sleeve to attract Young India - Rahul Gandhi’s target audience.
In keeping with Modi’s corporate style and tech savvy image, the BJP’s youth wing has declared that the first 500 youths to enrol maximum members across the country and 20 youths who come up with the brightest ideas via social media for the 2014 elections will get a chance to meet the man himself.
Taking a cue, perhaps, from marketing campaigns of leading brands, the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM) chief Anurag Thakur said youth are eager to associate themselves with the BJP ever since the Gujarat Chief Minister has been made the party’s election campaign committee chief.
“It is a known fact that India is one of the youngest nations in the world where youth comprise more than 65% of the population. We have set a target of enrolling one crore members in the BJP and BJYM through this drive.” Thakur said they will use social media, telephone numbers and mobile applications to enrol youngsters. The drive will be called Yuva Mitra.
As political battle is being increasingly fought online, the new members will be asked to give their mail IDs, social media profiles and other information so that they can be trained to become online warriors.
The BJYM will organize conferences, seminars, and rallies to increase its base among young voters. It has even launched a helpline for enrolling members.
Meanwhile, the Congress, which seems to have decided to take Modi head-on, on Tuesday ridiculed the BJP for charging registration fee for the Gujarat strongman’s public meeting in Hyderabad on August 11. “Baba Pravachan Ticket Rs 100-100,000. Cinema ticket Rs 200-500 even for box-office flop. Ticket to hear a CM Rs 5.
Market discovers true value,” Information and Broadcasting Minister Manish Tewari tweeted setting the tone of the attack for the day. The BJP, however, remained unfazed and slammed the Congress for making a mountain of a molehill. “This is not entry fee. No tickets are being sold. Those who do not want to pay are also welcome to attend the public meeting. It is unfair to say we are cashing in on Modi’s popularity,” BJP state president G Kishan Reddy said.
He termed the registration a paltry sum and said whatever was collected through this process would go to Uttarakhand flood victims.
BJP national secretary P Muralidhara Rao dismissed the Congress criticism saying, “It seems Modi is haunting Congress leaders every minute.” Party senior leader M Venkaiah Naidu recalled that Mahatma Gandhi and Jayaprakash Narayan too had collected funds in this fashion to fund the freedom struggle.
BJP leaders expect around one lakh people, mainly youth, to attend the meeting scheduled to be held at the LB stadium.
