Patna: Inspired by the concept of “Panna Pramukh”, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Bihar unit is using “Saptarishis” to connect with voters in the entire state.
“Panna Pramukh”, is a key campaign tool considered to have been perfected by BJP president Amit Shah during the 2014 general elections.
Each Panna Pramukh works at the booth level and is in-charge of one page of the booth’s voters’ list.
“One page of the electoral roll has votes from around seven to eight households and being a local, the Panna Pramukh knows the voters. Each Panna Pramukh has to ensure that the voters on his page cast their votes.”
This BJP innovation has been credited for the party’s election victories.
The Saptarishis will be required to go to the door step of every voter and explain the public welfare works of the party in the last 15 years as an alliance partner in the Bihar government. They will also take their feedback. The Saptarishis will work under the booth level agent (BLA).
“Saptarishi means seven, so seven workers will be allocated for each booth. They will work under the BLA of each booth in Bihar. The idea is to reach the door step of every voter,” said Akhilesh Kumar Singh, official spokesperson of the BJP in Bihar.
It has been evident that the Panna Pramukh played a crucial role during the 2014 and 2019 parliamentary elections as well as the last Uttar Pradesh Assembly election.
“The Saptarishis are the backbone of this election. Their job is to make people aware about their voting rights, party manifesto, past record of the party as well as the future policies. They have already started their work in the field and their job is supposed to be done only after they bring voters to the booths on the polling day,” Singh said.
As per a recent report of the Election Commission, Bihar has 1,06,527 polling booths, which is 33,804 more than the 2015 Assembly election.
“The BJP already has Saptarishis at 72,723 polling booths and processes are on to deploy for the remaining 33,804 booths. They are non paid dedicated members inspired by the ideology of the BJP,” Singh said.
The BJP is supposed to be a party of upper castes in Bihar, Singh said, “The party is choosing members of those communities having majority in specific regions. For instance, in the Dalit majority areas, if we have members belonging to the Dalit community, then we deploy them. There is no question of a Saptarishi being parachuted in such a constituency.
“Top leaders of the party will address Saptarishis on Sunday and also take their feedback at the ground level,” Singh added.
