Hectic schedule raises burnout scare in UP BJP

Lucknow: If the BJP in Uttar Pradesh was a train, its passengers would have been suffering from motion sickness by now.

Since the past five years, the party has been in an election mode and its cadres have been involved in one programme after another, raising fears of a burnout.

Since the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, the BJP has not allowed its cadres to get any free time. The ground activities have been intensified after the 2017 Assembly polls. For every programme, the BJP has been organising workshops to train workers in execution of the campaign.

Immediately after the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, the BJP started a verification drive of its “membership by missed call” programme. This included workshops for party workers.

The BJP’s unending series of programmes have left no room for respite for active party workers.

Talking to this correspondent on condition of anonymity, a senior vistarak said, “I have not been able to take my family for a single holiday in the past five years and my children have also started complaining but we know that the 2019 Lok Sabha elections are a big responsibility and we cannot shirk our duty — we are not like other parties where cadres are active only during elections”.

In 2017, the BJP spent months carrying out Parivartan Yatras to build up momentum for the UP Assembly elections.

“These yatras projected BJP as a party and did not focus on individual leaders. We ensured the participation of all workers from national level to state level, down to the village level. These yatras showcased the achievements of the Modi government and paved the way for our success in the Assembly elections”, said UP BJP general secretary Vijay Bahadur Pathak.

After the Parivartan Yatras concluded, the BJP held a series of seminars focussing on youth, OBCs and women in various districts.

These were followed up with rallies of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP president Amit Shah after which the party jumped into an intensive election campaign.

Immediately after the elections and formation of the Yogi Adityanath government, the BJP launched programmes to mark the birth anniversary of Deen Dayal Upadhyaya.

“In six months, we have organised 14 programmes on Pandit Deen Dayal Upadhyaya districts. The 200 whole-time vistaraks appointed by the party have been actively involved in supervising these party programmes and also ensuring the participation of cadres at every level,” Mr Pathak said.

A one-day tree plantation programme was also undertaken at the 40,000 booths simultaneously. The UP BJP is now busy with its millennium voters’ campaign to reach out to voters who have just turned 18 and will be voting for the first time in 2019.