Nearly a year ahead of the assembly elections in the state, politics is back on the radar of ruling saffron brigade.
Amidst the Coronavirus pandemic which is threatening to go out of all measurable proportions, parties have now shifted their focus to election strategies and campaigns.
The ruling BJP, which a few weeks ago, was showered with praise for controlling the epidemic in a very efficient manner is first out of the block. The party has drawn up an ambitious plan to carry out a virtual campaign in the run up to the elections starting from June 16 this year.
Notwithstanding the current situation, the saffron camp has decided to have a first mover advantage in luring the voters and plans to reach the doorsteps of 50 lakh voters in the first phase of their campaign.
The top guns of the party in the state, chief minister Sarbananda Sonowal, health minister Himanta Biswa Sarma and state president Ranjit Dass will launch the campaign from various assembly segments on June 16 - that is as early as coming Tuesday.
As planned, Jansamvad Rally (public contact rally), two workers of the party in every Mondol, Morcha, district and block level will visit each family armed with a letter signed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi highlighting the achievements of his one-year-old government along with a report card of the four-year-old Sonowal government.
Clearly, it looks like the Covid-19 pandemic which has sent the entire world into an isolation mode, has not been able to deter or delay any plans of the party and they will go as they like pressing the accelerator of politics.
An insider in the ruling party said that the BJP’s strategy to kick start election campaign at this critical juncture when Covid-19 infection is yet to reach peak levels in the state was debated threadbare. There was a school of thought in one camp that said the move might backfire, considering the present situation of health emergency in the state. However, the opinion of the heavyweights of the party prevailed and they decided to go ahead with the election campaign plans.
Plans were drawn up to heavily use digital media as a primary tool for campaigning till the Covid-19 pandemic subsides.
The IT cell of the party will heavily assist the state with virtual media strategies. A top IT honcho of the BJP will be stationed in Guwahati to oversee the entire digital campaign of the party till the run up to the elections.
In fact, heavy investments have already gone into setting up the necessary infrastructure starting from block to district level, like video conferencing facility at every party office in the state etc.
The Bihar Jansamvad Rally, by Home Minister Amit Shah in Bihar, dubbed by the saffron outfit as part of its mission to bring together people in the fight against the novel coronavirus, is actually an electoral exercise which has been set as the template for the poll campaign likely to be adapted by most of the parties in the upcoming assembly elections in the state.
On similar lines, in Assam also the party has planned several such rallies in the next three months to set the slugfest between the saffron camp and its arch rivals.