Eyes on 2024 polls, parties start early

Sandeep Rana

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Chandigarh, December 11

Even as the 2024 Lok Sabha elections are more than a year away, major political parties — the BJP, Congress and AAP — have started their campaign early by reaching out to the masses in a bid to make an impact.

The BJP has already started holding party meetings. Last month, national party president JP Nadda visited the party office and asked the leaders and cadre to hit the ground for the polls.

How they fared in last elections

• BJP’s Kirron Kher won second time polling 2,31,188 votes
• Congress’ Pawan Kumar Bansal polled 1,84,218 votes
• AAP came third with turncoat Harmohan Dhawan polling 13,781 votes

National BJP information and technology (IT) cell head Amit Malviya also addressed party leaders at the city office and directed them to utilise digital media tools at their disposal to reach out to the people.

Arun Sood, city BJP chief, says: “Our preparations for 2024 have been on for the past five months and will go on till the elections. We recently held Shakti Kendra Sammelan and will organise a Booth Samiti Sammelan this month, wherein 6,000 to 9,000 office-bearers will be in attendance. We are holding election-oriented activities at all 595 polling booths. Subject-based panels have been formed to mitigate people’s problems.”

Will cover all booths

Our preparations have been on for the past five months and these will go on till polls. We are holding activities at all 595 polling booths in the city. —Arun Sood, UT BJP chief

‘Bharat Jodo’ outreach

Through ‘Bharat Jodo Yatra’, we will reach out to maximum number of people and understand their problems. We will then work on addressing these. —HS Lucky, UT Cong president

Door-to-door drive

We are going to ask party councillors to go door to door to understand the problems of people. Besides, we have started an online group for volunteers. —Prem Garg, UT AAP president

The city Congress, too, has kickstarted its own leg of the ‘Bharat Jodo Yatra’ ahead of the elections. Through this, the party plans a mass contact exercise at all 600 polling booths of the city. Besides, the party has formed sub-committees and asked them to get cracking.

“Through this yatra, we can reach out to maximum number of people and understand their problems ahead of the elections. We will then work on addressing the issues,” says HS Lucky, city Congress president.

As for the AAP, it has asked councillors to start a door-to-door public contact programme in respective wards before the elections. Besides, the party will take people’s views regarding development works and their expectations ahead of the polls.

The party has floated “AAP Chandigarh Official” group of volunteers online. It has asked people who want to join the party to do so by clicking a link to this group.

“We are going to ask all party councillors to go door to door to understand the aspirations and problems of the people. Besides, we have started other activities keeping in mind the elections,” says Prem Garg, city AAP president.

The parties are likely to decide their candidates as the elections draw closer. On the previous two occasions, the candidates were announced during the last days of filing of nominations.