BJP Has Made Yatras an Infallible Poll Weapon Since 1990s; Will This Formula Work Again This Time? – News18

Launched by its top leaders like Amit Shah, JP Nadda, Rajnath Singh and Nitin Gadkari, the BJP has begun its election yatras in the poll-bound states of Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan with an aim to mobilise its cadres and reach out to maximum voters.

The Yatras remain an infallible election weapon for the BJP as the party sees them as a surest remedy to fill momentum in its campaign early on. For instance, BJP’s Jan Ashirwad Yatra has started from five different places in Madhya Pradesh by the party’s and present and three former national presidents.

The effort is to reach the masses. The Jan Ashirwad Yatra is reaching 210 Vidhan Sabhas of Madhya Pradesh, that is, about 8 crore voters, and will collect the suggestions of the public through Jan Akanksha Box, travelling for 18 days. The strategy is to go to every region and cover a distance of more than 10,600 km, with the specialty being that the Yatra is originating from not one but five places. BJP has made it a point to give place to the leaders of every region and society on the poster of the Yatra.

The BJP has also planned widespread contact and dialogue, with more than 1,000 receptions, over 600 chariot meetings, around 250 stage meetings, and about 50 big public meetings during the Yatra. The Centre and state BJP leaders will be involved collectively on different days at all places, and such collective leadership is also visible with pictures of 12 leaders on the Yatra chariot, the BJP says.

BJP leaders recount that the relationship between the BJP and Yatras is old and the party has been resorting to yatras for decades to prepare its organisation and reach out to public. Most of the times it has been seen that the BJP also gets the benefit of yatras in elections, notably how the Ram Rath Yatra of 1990 and the Ekta Yatra of 1993 gave strength to the BJP. In 1996, the BJP was able to make its Prime Minister for the first time. In 1997, BJP’s Golden Jubilee Yatra was taken out, and, in 1998 polls, BJP again emerged as the largest party and formed a government.

Will the Yatra formula work for the BJP in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh again? The party is confident.