BJP holds closed-door sessions with intellectuals in 70 cities ahead of 2014 polls

NEW DELHI: This one is for the ‘khaas admi’. The BJP will hold closed-door sessions with intellectuals in 70 cities in a bid to win their support in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections. At these meetings, where BJP’s prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi will be the focus of debate, an apolitical renowned personality of the city will speak before a niche audience from various walks of life.

This is the first time that the party is adopting such a strategy of reaching out to intellectuals. The programmes, beginning in January, will run parallel to the party’s mass-mobilization campaigns—door to door with the slogan ‘one vote, one note’ and in villages to collect iron, water and soil for Modi’s pet project to build Sardar Patel’s statue.


“We are targeting the so far untapped and untouched segment and calling those who are not on the party platform as a bridge between them and the party. This is aimed at creating the atmospherics for propaganda over and above the party programme,” said R Balashankar, national convenor of BJP’s intellectual cell.


In UP, the party is planning to hold 10 such meetings in major cities of the state and eight in Bihar. Besides a renowned personality, each session will also be addressed by a senior central party leader or chief minister. However, while the BJP says it’s trying to woo those who are not affiliated to any political party, it will keep in mind that the intellectuals selected to address the gathering of 500-1,500 would be amenable to being associated with it.

“The attempt will be to project Modi as part of a backroom campaign,” said BJP leader Rajiv Pratap Rudy, who will be involved in organizing the meetings. Besides the intellectual cell, which is preparing a data base of 50,000 intellectuals including scientists, engineers, lawyers, the BJP’s legal and human rights cells are also involved in the organization-backed campaign, as is the Friends of BJP grouping.