Raths with generator, power back up & 55 inch edge-LED TV screen to be used by BJP for UP campaign

NEW DELHI: BJP's Uttar Pradesh unit has decided to cover rural areas with a combination of old-world propaganda and hi-tech equipment. The party has readied 401 raths or customised mini pick-up vans to travel to each assembly constituency in the state.

According to state unit spokesperson Vijay Bahadur Pathak, the idea was floated by general secretary Amit Shah, a confidant of prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi. "We have already sent some vans to at least 18 villages, out of the 19,000 going to polls in the early phases of polling," he told ET.

The vans are equipped with a generator, power back up, a 55 inch edge-LED TV screen and three people to run the show. "There is a 10-minute film on Modiji, some excerpts of speeches of Rajnathji (Singh) and Modiji, as well as enumeration of the works of the NDA government," said Pathak.

The vans coloured in saffron have been customised in Maharashtra and will also carry pamphlets and a mobile number — 78200 — where people will be encouraged to SMS suggestions on just what they want from a Modi government.

"The idea is to basically get campaign messages to people who don't have access to traditional mass media like newspapers and television, leave alone the internet," said Pathak.

He refused to give the exact cost of the vans, but added that it was being reported to the Election Commission as campaign expenditure.

The vans will criss-cross Uttar Pradesh much in the manner that Modi vans did during the Gujarat elections, except it won't be a high tech affair of projecting holograms. The reality of infrastructure in rural Uttar Pradesh doesn't quite lend itself to such a campaign yet.