BJP all set for massive public contact drive, deputes mins in 140 LS seats

Union ministers from the Bharatiya Janata Party will visit more than 140 parliamentary constituencies across the country and interact with party workers and beneficiaries of various welfare schemes as part of the party's planned outreach exercise to mark eight years of the Narendra Modi-led central government, sources said on Wednesday.

BJP president JP Nadda held a meeting with the ministers on Wednesday to deliberated on the exercise to be held between May 30 and June 15, and to finalise the tour plans.

According to party sources, the constituencies to be covered by Union ministers were selected based on the party's organisational strength and electoral performance. These constituencies are currently represented in Lok Sabha by members from the opposition parties and the BJP is relatively weak there, they said.

During the outreach campaign, half-a-dozen Union ministers, including Dharmendra Pradhan, Smriti Irani and Jyotiraditya Scindia, will visit West Bengal, sources said.

Health minister Mansukh Mandaviya will visit Punjab, along with some other Union ministers.

West Bengal is currently governed by the Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress, while the Arvind Kejriwal-led Aam Aadmi Party is in power in Punjab.

The Union ministers will spend two-three days in the states assigned to them. They will interact with party workers and beneficiaries of government schemes and hold press conferences.

Wednesday's meeting at the BJP headquarters here concluded with a speech by former BJP chief and Union Home Minister Amit Shah. Union ministers Pradhan, Irani and Kiren Rijiju also addressed it.

The BJP will celebrate the Modi government's anniversary from May 30 to June 15 on the theme of 'Sewa, Sushashan and Gareeb Kalyan' (service, good governance and welfare of poor).

In the recent meeting of its office-bearers in Jaipur, the BJP had announced that all Union ministers would visit different areas across the country to mark eight years of the Narendra Modi government and take feedback from people on various welfare schemes.