3 min readNew DelhiSep 26, 2022 01:32 AM IST
First published on: Sep 25, 2022 at 07:15 PM IST
With the likelihood of Municipal Corporation of Delhi elections being held in December, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) wants all booth workers to attend party president JP Nadda’s address to booth workers on October 16, for which it has put in place a unique attendance system.
To check if the workers arrived for the programme, each of them would be given an identity card with a scannable QR code, a BJP spokesperson said.
The MCD in Delhi has been run by the BJP for three consecutive terms now and anti-incumbency is high, even as the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) is close on its heels.
Nadda will be addressing thousands of booth workers of Delhi on October 16 from Ramlila Maidan, which party insiders say, will also be an occasion to infuse energy into the cadre ahead of the corporation polls.
The MCD polls, originally scheduled for April, were put off hours before the election schedule were to be announced in March. The BJP-led Central government said it wanted to unify the MCDs, which it eventually did, and conduct delimitation to decrease the number of wards from 272 to 250. Now with the first delimitation draft ready, the BJP has begun its poll preparations by sticking to its strength-cadre building.
Delhi BJP president Adesh Gupta said that five booth workers each from over 13,000 booths in Delhi will be present on the occasion. The councillors and mandal presidents have been told to make a list of five people in each booth.
Speaking about the BJP’s ‘paanch parmeshwar’ concept for the rally, former mayor and BJP leader Narendra Chawla said that under the programme, the party appoints five people in each booth — the booth president, a woman and a youth worker, a booth palak (nurturer) and a booth level officer.
There are over 13,000 booths in Delhi. The 270 mandal presidents of the BJP have to submit a list of paanch parmeshwar for each booth. “The target is to form or update the team and submit the details in the next few days,” Chawla added.
Along with the BJP, AAP too is making poll preparations and has asked its workers to reach out to people, especially in slums and jhuggi clusters, to educate the people about electricity subsidy registration scheme so that they do not miss out on applying and continue to get the subsidy, which ensures free power for up to 200 units of consumption.
“The workers have been told to help people apply both online and offline and ensure that they avail the power subsidy benefits,” said a senior AAP leader.
Currently, the people get a 100% subsidy for consuming less than 200 units and 50% subsidy up to Rs 800 for consuming up to 400 units. The Delhi government has now made it mandatory for the people to opt in for the subsidy to continue getting the benefits.
“We’ll reach out to the masses and explain to them how simple the electricity subsidy registration process is so that the maximum number of citizens can take benefit of it,” AAP MLA Durgesh Pathak said.
“The AAP volunteers will go door-to-door to help out citizens in registering for the electricity subsidy,” he added.
The decision to initiate a door-to-door campaign was taken in a meeting of the AAP office bearers.
Nadda will be addressing thousands of booth workers of Delhi on October 16 from Ramlila Maidan, which party insiders say, will also be an occasion to infuse energy into the cadre ahead of the corporation polls. (File) 
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