BJP starts drive with focus on intensifying its rural outreach

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) plans to intensify its outreach in rural areas with a campaign that will see senior leaders spend time in villages to assess the mood on the ground, ensure saturation of schemes and underscore the achievements of the Union government, particularly the completion of the Ram Temple in Ayodhya, people aware of the details said on Friday.

- Smriti Kak Ramachandran

On Saturday, BJP president JP Nadda launched the “Gaon Chalo Abhiyan”, which a party functionary said is designed to allow interaction between leaders and voters in booths across 700,000 villages. The BJP, once considered an urban-centric party, has been making inroads into rural India through a slew of social welfare schemes oriented towards empowering the economically weak and socially marginalised.

According to CSDS-Lokniti, the BJP’s vote share in rural areas went up from 30.3% in 2014 to 37.6% in 2019. Party leaders attribute this change to labharthis (beneficiaries) voting for the BJP, overlooking caste and other local considerations.