'T20' and corporate-style targets: How BJP is preparing for 2019 Lok Sabha elections

NEW DELHI: The BJP is set to play T20 to prepare for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. A senior leader has been quoted as saying the party would use an intensified voter engagement strategy to push for the re-election of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The BJP's T20 strategy however will not feature either PM Modi or party chief Amit Shah padding up. Instead, it refers to a drive to get each BJP worker to visit at least 20 houses in their area and talk up the Modi government over tea.

Revealing their strategy to news agency PTI's Bhasha Indian language service, senior leaders have been quoted as saying the party workers have been asked to impress on voters in their areas "how important it is for them to keep the BJP government in power".

The details of the door-to-door voter engagement plan also have some marks of a corporate-style approach to the task of canvassing. For instance, BJP workers now seem set to receive targets to get the NaMo app installed on the phones of at least 20 people in their areas, with booth-level teams given targets in the triple digits.

An updated version of the app would contain a section that would set out assignment for party workers and provide them with advisories on how to engage with voters along with campaign aid like information in texts, video clips and graphics, BJP leaders told PTI Bhasha.

The BJP's election machinery delivered 282 seats to the party with just 31.34 percent of the votes in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections. It has since also delivered unprecedented victories to the BJP in state assembly elections since.

The BJP has also gotten into election mode even as opposition parties continue to struggle to find the common ground to come together to challenge the BJP in the Lok Sabha elections.

(With inputs from PTI)