New Delhi: Citing the party’s busy schedule owing to the ongoing T20 Yamuna Challenge Trophy and the state Assembly elections in Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh, the Delhi BJP, for the first time in recent history, forgot to take notice of the revision of electoral roll to include the first time voters. In the past, like other political parties, Delhi BJP also used to take up this opportunity to reach out to new voters, especially the first timers who just turned 18.
A senior Delhi BJP leader told this newspaper that for the first time, the party failed to take advantage of the opportunity to woo the first time voters by helping them get their names enrolled in the electoral list.
“Not a single meeting or activity was proposed during the revision of the electoral roll. Former MLA Subhash Sachdeva, the in-charge of such activities, was earlier busy in Himachal Pradesh and it is learnt that he is now working for the party in Gujarat,” he added.
Despite knowing all this, the state leadership failed to appoint Mr Sachdeva’s replacement as the state unit was reportedly busy organising the T20 tournament.
“The seriousness of the state leadership, including the role and knowledge of state president Manoj Tiwari, general secretary (organisation) Sidhar-than, and other general secretaries Kuljeet Chahal, Ravinder Gupta, and Rajesh Bhatia, is seen as a key issue in this context,” a senior office bearer said.
Talking about previous practices, another senior leader said that earlier, the party used to direct the district units to organise special camps to encourage first time voters to get their names enrolled in the electoral list. The state president and general secretaries used to appoint a Lok Sabha in-charge for the purpose who, in coordination with the district units, used to appoint the Assembly and block coordinators.
“Each worker was given the target of enrolling 10 new or first time voters for each booth,” the party leader added.
