‘BJD to suffer from trust-deficit syndrome’
BJP’s Odisha Pravari and national membership campaign co in-charge
Arun Singh spoke to Hemanta Kumar Pradhan of The Pioneer on party’s roadmap in the State.
Do
you think BJP will come to power in 2019?
We are now busy in strengthening our party from grassroots
level so that we can hit our target in a more organised way. We have more than
three lakh members in the State and we target to achieve the magic number of 30
lakh to create our committed vote bank. If we get the magic number, we will be
the number one party in the State.
Also, we are proceeding towards our goal in a planned way.
Our party is focusing on the Panchayati Raj election to be held 2017 in order
to show our strength before the general election of 2019. The BJP would take
benefit out of the people’s anger against BJD’s misrule. Some BJD leaders were arrested
and several others are under CBI scanner in the chit fund scam. Mining, land
and house allotment scams have also left the ruling party red-faced. Due to all
these scams, the BJD is going to suffer from trust-deficit syndrome in the
State. Our party is going to be a political alternative in Odisha as the BJD
and Congress are demoralised and frustrated respectively.
Do
you feel Modi magic will work here?
If the BJP increased its seats from four to 47 in the Haryana
Assembly
elections then why not in Odisha? We will increase our
seats from 10 to 120 in the next Assembly polls. Modi magic will work surely.
The Haryana model of campaign can be replicated in Odisha.
Once
you had told to mediapersons that many leaders from other parties, including
BJD and Congress, would join your party. Is it true?
Yes, it’s true. Some top leaders in the BJD have expressed
their desire to come to our party fold. They are in touch with us. I’ll reveal
the names of the leaders at an appropriate time. Just wait and watch what BJP
is doing in near future.
How
your party is prepared to continue membership drive in State? Do you think
people will turn up according to your plan?
As 2015 is our organisational year, we will observe our
party’s
Sangathan Parva this year to renew membership of existing
basic or active members and will also add new members to our party fold. We will
also restructure the party structure from the grassroots level like the layer
of city in urban areas and block in rural areas. The membership drive will
continue till March 31, 2015.
You know, youth inclination towards the party is
tremendous. The youth love Modiji for his development agenda. We are number one
party in the country and are going to be the number one party in the world very
soon. I’m confident enough to get good response from the people of the State who
are fed up with BJD’s autocratic rule. Our initial membership drive has
received good reaction from the people. We will raise important issues of the
people at the State and the Central levels and will hit the streets if needed.
We will corner the State Government for the welfare of society.
According
to the last election results, your party’s base is not strong in coastal area
unlike western Odisha. How you can strengthen your base here?
In western Odisha, we are strong. Our vote percentage is
high in the region. Still, we are trying to convert our vote share into seats.
We will raise several issues, including distress sale of
paddy, farmer suicide, distress migration, jaundice in Sambalpur and starvation
death in Nuapada and will promote other popular agitations against the State
Government.
Yes, our performance in the last elections was not good in
coastal region, but we are now strengthening our base in the area. We are focusing
upon the grassroots level leaders to win the confidence of people. Our party is
taking several steps to create genuine members to strengthen our party. Hope we
will do better in the next elections.
It
was a long perception that your party is suffering from ego-clash between
senior leaders. How you address the internal issues?
No, not at all. Our senior leaders have already worked at
different rallies and assignments unitedly without any ego clash. They are working
for the welfare of the people of the State. The youth leaders are working under
the guidance of seniors in the party. Our party is united and strong now.
It is
seen that some political party workers are indulged in bad practices. Do you
have any mechanism to train the workers?
Yes it’s happening, but our party is very conscious in the
matter. It is very important to train the party workers because their bad behaviour
may ruin the party image in the public. Our national leaders have planned to
train 15 lakh workers after the membership drive. We are going to train one
lakh members between June and August this year about party’s ideologies, party
icons, history of organisation, NDA Government’s achievement and behavioural
practices.
The interview was published in The Pioneer English daily on January 12, 2015
http://www.dailypioneer.com/state-editions/bhubaneswar/bjd-to-suffer-from-trust-deficit-syndrome.html
