24 February,2009 12:03 PM IST | | Agencies
BJP's drive to reach out to more and more people in the Lok Sabha elections is getting help from an "unofficial SMS campaign" launched by a group called the "friends of BJP".
Mobile subscribers across the country would be receiving SMSes asking for subscription of regular alerts from the "friends of BJP" on the party's Lok Sabha campaign. It asks the subscriber to SMS 'start 4bjp' to receive regular feedbacks.
The mobile user is greeted by a introductory SMS within 2 minutes, which says,"friends of BJP is a subject of the educated civil society comprising youth and professional that is BJP-leaning, and willing to be vocal about it."
The SMS further says the objectives of the campaign are three-fold--- outreach-help grow support for BJP, Ideas bank- provide a channel for members to give inputs to the BJP leadership and Votes and Seats- help BJP win more seats by using help from members to get one lakh new voters in every constituency.
The saffron party had in 2004 used state-of-the-art campaigning, including the recorded telephonic voice of former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee. However, the 'India shining' campaign failed to make any mark. "The conventional style of campaigning would still have its own importance.
These kind of innovative methods can only supplement the regular methods like rallies and one-to-one contacts. It cannot substitute the approved methods," party General secretary Arun Jaitley said.
