General Dalbir’s home first stop in Amit Shah’s reach-out for 2019

NEW DELHI: BJP chief Amit Shah kicked off the party’s reach-out programme under which union ministers, ministers in party-ruled states, MPs, MLAs, office bearers and mayors will meet one lakh eminent people and opinion-makers across the country as part of efforts to seek support for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

Shah met former army chief General (retd.) Dalbir Singh Suhag at the latter’s residence on the outskirts of Delhi cantonment on Tuesday morning and apprised him of the achievements and initiatives of the Narendra Modi government in the last four years.

Suhag, under whose watch the surgical strike was carried out, was gifted party booklet, a pen drive and other literature describing the work done by Modi.


Shah also met constitutional expert Subash Kashyap at the latter’s Sainik Farm home. The process of drawing up names of eminent personalities has begun at state levels.

BJP sources said Shah himself will meet such people in different states. Incidentally, the party was not clear about which leader, including Shah, will meet who and the list is still being prepared. No union minister or office bearer was aware of who they are supposed to meet as part of the programme. Some of the ministers were clueless about the contours of this reach-out exercise.

However, some of the chief ministers and state units have reportedly begun their reachout. Home minister Rajnath Singh and Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath held a press interaction in Lucknow.

Around 4,000 BJP leaders—ranging from union ministers to mayors to office bearers—will each meet 25 eminent people from various fields like education, defence forces, advocates, engineers, doctors, artists, sportspersons, et al till June 11.

“A union minister or BJP chief and office bearers or even an MP meeting an eminent person has an impact and the word about achievements and initiatives taken by the Modi government spreads to a wider section of people. Such people are opinion makers in their own right. This is not an exercise to get feedback from the people or an evaluation programme,” a senior BJP office bearer said.


The tagline—Sampark for Samarthan (reach-out for support)— of the programme itself is a giveaway that BJP is mustering support for the 2019 elections. BJP district and block level members will also be assigned to meet 50 families per booth in their respective areas and educate them about the work done by Modi government and the seven flagship welfare programmes.