With its core Hindutva constituency eroded, the BJP has decided to beef up its organisational network to retrieve lost ground. To start with, it has decided to induct at least 200 full-time workers at the grassroots.The decision to rope in more full-timers is a fall-out of the review of organisational weaknesses undertaken by the BJP leadership following the party’s defeat in Lok Sabha polls.Sources said that the new recruits will be deployed for a year. Though rooted in Parivar ideology, they would be different from pracharaks loaned by the RSS under the well-defined system which has been on since the Jana Sangh days. The BJP has some 50 RSS pracharaks on deputation and they hold crucial posts of general secretaries (organisation). The party already has over 70 full-time workers. Sources say the recruits would be drawn from among the 1,100-odd election assistants recruited for the recent Lok Sabha polls. The review of the poll outcome has exposed many chinks in the party’s armour. L.K. Advani, speaking at the Mumbai national executive, had cited one of them. He said a ‘‘lack of proper coordination with the local party units and karyakartas’’ perhaps contributed to the defeat of many sitting MPs. ‘‘This was perhaps the reason for the lack of enthusiasm and common resolve among party workers’’ to get them re-elected, he had said.Venkaiah Naidu gave a call for a return to ‘‘the basics’’ (Hindutva) at the meeting. He recalled old times when functionaries toured their areas and planned mass programmes. But during the LS polls, BJP workers had failed to scrutinise voters’ lists in some constituencies.
