The BJP has decided to post 3,500 whole-timers as election managers in its Lok Sabha constituencies from January 26. The party plans contesting some 350 seats.Called chunav sahayaks, a substantial chunk of them has been drawn from the RSS. They would take care of the managerial work and leave candidates free to campaign. BJP president M. Venkaiah Naidu, who came up with the idea of placing each constituency under whole-timers, had initially planned to draft 10,000 people for the work. However, advance polls have forced him to settle for a more realistic figure.The largest contingent of 300 whole-timers will be deployed in UP, followed by 280 in MP and 250 each in Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Gujarat and Karnataka. Bihar has been assigned 200 workers, while Assam, Delhi, Orissa, West Bengal and Haryana have been allotted 100 each. The single-seat UT of Chandigarh has been allotted 10 whole-timers.The party’s informal campaign will get underway from January 23 and end on February 21. A total of 200 public meetings will be addressed by senior leaders Deputy PM L.K. Advani, Naidu, Murli Manohar Joshi, Jaswant Singh, Sushma Swaraj, Pramod Mahajan and Arun Jaitley. The party has called a two-day meeting of state spokespersons and in-charge of media cells here from January 28 to improve their communicative skills. A meeting of district presidents and general secretaries, state office-bearers and others is scheduled for February 6.
