BJP forming 3-member committee for every page of voter list in Himachal

New Delhi, April 18 (IANS) Ahead of the assembly polls in the state, the BJP is forming a three-member committee for every page of voter list in the Himachal Pradesh. The election for the 68-member Himachal Pradesh assembly would be held along with Gujarat at the end of year.

As per the plan, three Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) workers will be deployed for every 30 voters in a page of the voter list.

Himachal Pradesh in-charge Avinash Rai Khanna told IANS that the state BJP is in the final stage of formation of a page committee on every page of the voter list.

"A three member's page committee includes one 'panna pramukh' (page head) and two other BJP workers. They will be the party's first point of contact for the voters of that particular page. There are 30 voters in every page of the voter list and our page committee will develop a direct connection with them. The BJP is present at each polling booth and each page of the voter list across Himachal Pradesh," Khanna said.

Formation of the booth committee has almost been completed by the Himachal Pradesh BJP unit.

"Formation of the booth committee at each polling booth of Himachal Pradesh has been completed as per the direction of central leadership. Formation of the page committee will be completed soon," Khanna said.

The party feels that the page committee has yielded good political results in recent assembly polls held in four states.

"The page and booth committee experiments have shown good results in recent assembly polls in Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Goa and Manipur. Party leaders have fixed a deadline of December 2021 to form the booth committee at over 10 lakh polling booths across the country. Now the formation of the page committee will be completed soon," a BJP insider said.

Earlier, the saffron party used to appoint 'panna pramukh', in charge of one page (both front and back) of a voter list, which is now replaced with 'panna committee' (page committee) consisting of five or six voters from the same page.

The 'panna pramukh' concept, a brainchild of union Home Minister Amit Shah, was first used in 2007 Gujarat Assembly polls and has since been replicated in other states and 2019 General elections.

A 'panna pramukh' acts as the head of one page of a voter list consisting of the names of nearly 30 voters. Now, panna pramukh will be assisted by the other members of the page committee.