New Delhi/Kolkata: Prime Minister Narendra Modi, on Wednesday, instructed BJP’s Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha members from West Bengal to go for an extensive public relations and public awareness exercise, spreading information on the necessity of the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the voters’ list in the eastern state that started from November 4.
The Prime Minister gave these instructions at a meeting with the party MPs from West Bengal in Delhi on Wednesday afternoon, which was attended by the 12 BJP Lok Sabha members and the two Rajya Sabha members from West Bengal, party sources said, adding that the interaction lasted for a considerable duration and covered both organisational and electoral issues.
However, the Prime Minister advised the party MPs from the state to refrain from making any projection about the probable number of voters whose names would be finally deleted from the final voters’ list after the SIR, confirmed one of the Lok Sabha members present at the meeting.
“Rather, the Prime Minister advised us to focus on making people aware of why SIR is necessary so that only genuine voters are retained in the voters’ list after excluding the bogus voters,” a party Lok Sabha member said, stressing that the pitch should be on cleansing the electoral roll instead of speculative figures.
BJP state president in West Bengal and the party’s Lok Sabha member, Samik Bhattacharya, who was present at the meeting, said that the Prime Minister individually interacted with all the party MPs from the state present at the meeting and listened to their feedback about ground realities.
Bhattacharya said that PM Modi was well aware of the situation in West Bengal and there was no need to update him separately about the situation in detail. “He had given some valuable advice on how to go ahead for the crucial assembly elections in the state next year, especially in terms of booth-level organisation and connecting with beneficiaries,” he said.
It has been learnt that the advice given by the Prime Minister includes direction to the party MPs to maintain regular contact with beneficiaries of Central government schemes in the state and to disseminate information about the Centre’s work to the public through social media, village-level meetings and direct interactions.
(IANS)
