NEW DELHI, February 6: If the phone rings and you hear Atal Bihari Vajpayee's voice, don't be surprised. The BJP today launched its mass contact programme with a personal touch, under which 100,000 people in Delhi will receive a phone call and hear a taped election appeal by Vajpayee.To listen to BJP President L.K. Advani's personal appeal (on tape) for a decisive mandate to the BJP and its allies, voters have been asked to dial 6907770. And if you are not among the one lakh and still wish to hear Vajpayee, call at voice mail number 9393003, leave your name and telephone number and you will be called back the next day.
The BJP's aim, according to BJP general secretary M. Venkaiah Naidu, is to woo undecided voters. The hi-tech computerised information system is a voluntary contribution from friends of the BJP, he said. The BJP had tried something similar thing during the 1996 elections, the difference this time being the one lakh phone calls that the party will make.
Senior BJP leader Sikander Bakhtinaugurated the service this afternoon. Speaking in Hindi, Advani asks voters to give a decisive mandate to the BJP and its allies. In 1996, they gave their mandate to the BJP but not a majority. For the first time since 1984, a party or a combine was in a position to get a clear majority. In 1984, it was the Congress; this time it is the BJP combine.
This time, says Advani, the people seem to have decided that they do not want a hung Parliament, that they will vote for a strong and stable government under Atal Bihari Vajpayee.
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
