Chennai: BJP has firmed up its election campaign strategy forming a task force comprising senior leaders, who would be deputed across the state to carry out election work.Though BJP had planned to deploy the task force to key constituencies that BJP has been eyeing, party seniors revised plan and extended the reachout to all 234 segments since seat sharing has not been finalised. The task force members would stay in the constituencies allotted to them, meet locally influential personalities, caste leaders even as they organise public meetings.
In western Tamil Nadu, former state president K Annamalai was assigned Singanallur, while Union minister L Murugan will oversee Nilgiris, Tirupur North and Valparai. Coimbatore South MLA Vanathi Srinivasan was allotted Tirupur South and Coonoor, besides her own constituency. Party veteran Pon Radhakrishnan would take care of Mettuppalayam and Palani, while Tamilisai Soundararajan has been assigned Pollachi. An internal circular issued by state president Nainar Nagenthran directed the leaders to conduct at least two tours in each allotted constituency and to spend 24 hours, including an overnight stay, during every visit. The circular instructed them to meet community representatives, constituency committees, district and mandal office bearers, ward-level functionaries and booth-level workers, and to visit at least one polling booth directly.It also asked them to co-ordinate with NDA partners and to keep constituency victory as the primary objective, while allowing programmes to be spread across multiple visits instead of a single tour.Party sources said there was an additional thrust on western districts, as internal assessments indicated higher chances of victory there. They said the party was preparing to seek a larger share of seats in this zone during alliance talks.A similar approach has been adopted for southern Tamil Nadu too, where Annamalai was assigned Madurai South, Karaikudi, Srivaikuntam and Padmanabhapuram. L Murugan has been given Radhapuram and Thiruparankundram, which was in the spotlight because of the Deepam row. In contrast, the party’s deployment showed comparatively fewer senior leaders assigned to segments in northern Tamil Nadu, particularly Chennai.Meanwhile, the party leaders on Friday launched an election manifesto feedback-collection programme in Chennai. In Piyush Goyal’s absence, L Murugan and Tamilisai flagged off the vans, which will travel across all 38 districts in the next 2 weeks.
