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Rajasthan Assembly Elections 2018: BJP gets panna pramukhs to drive its vote count up

Foot Soldiers: Mainstream parties in Rajasthan appoint booth-level committees to oversee voting on Dec 7

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In any battle it is critical how well-trained and informed are the foot soldiers for an army to pull off a win. So, is the case in political battle, which is underway in Rajasthan and culminates with voting process coming to an end on December 7.

In order to win the polls, the BJP has created a team of seven lakh panna pramukhs and more than one million (10 lakh) booth workers in state. These chosen 17 lakh soldiers have been tasked with the most important of all functions: bringing the voter to the polling booth, and ensuring there is no discrepancy in voting list.

The BJP has created two sets of workers at booth level. The panna pramukhs are drawn exclusively from the RSS background and those who are adept in the function of sampark (networking). The remaining shall work on the expansion of the booth-level participation of voters.

Unlike BJP, the Congress has a single unit that they call the booth management committee. As mandated by AICC general secretary and Rajasthan in-charge Avinash Pandey, the Congress claims to have a team of 27 workers in each booth. "Of these, two workers each are from four frontal organisations — NSUI, Youth Congress, Sewa Dal and the Mahila Congress," says a Congress functionary.


(A sample list of voters handed over to panna pramukh, in Rajasthan.)

There are over 51,000 booths in state. Based on the Congress claims, the party has a bench strength of more than 13,00,000 booth workers.

The BJP, however, has the advantage of headstart over Congress and the cushioning of cadre-base in its rank and file. The booth committees and Shakti Kendras were formed more than a year from now, while the concept of panna pramukh and vistaraks is modelled on the Gujarat BJP unit, where this concept was first introduced.

The BJP even changed its organisational structure to micro-manage polls in state. Party president Amit Shah personally met and supervised the works of shakti kendras.

"There are 76,72, 861 voters in the state. There are 60 names on a voter page. There are around 600 to 12,000 voters in a polling booth," a party official said. A panna pramukh has been fixed for a page of the voter list. A BJP worker will become the in charge of 60 voters.

The Congress woke up a little late to the BJP tactic and launched the Mera Booth, Mera Gaurav programme. PCC chief Sachin Pilot personally headed the programmes to ensure the Congress could create committees at the booth level to manage the elections on the D-Day. However, unlike the BJP, the Congress doesn't have a dedicated cadre base.

Sangh Strategy

Panna praumkh is an in-charge of voters in one page of the voter list. He will maintain contact with all 60 voters on the list and also give information to the voters about the programmes of the BJP governments. On the poll day, he will visit the voters in the list and ensure that they cast their votes. 

Cong’s Counter

As mandated by AICC general secretary and Rajasthan in-charge Avinash Pandey, the Congress claims to have a team of 27 workers in each booth. Of that, two workers each are from four frontal organisations of the party — NSUI, Youth Congress, Sewa Dal and the Mahila Congress.  

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