BJP’s tele-warriors for Lok Sabha elections
New Delhi: It is a battle to catch mind space through television ahead of the Lok Sabha elections and both the BJP and the Congress have tele-warriors adept at articulating their viewpoint.
The tele-warriors are both a mix of youth and experience and know how to present their points amid the cacophony of voices on news channels.
They promote their leaders and counter each other’s “lies and propaganda” through “facts and figures”. Tele-warriors do on a daily basis what senior leaders cannot due to their other responsibilities and commitments.
Here are some of the prominent tele-warriors of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP):
Vaibhav Agarwal: Has worked as State Convener in the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM) in Uttar Pradesh and state coordinator of ‘Friends of BJP’.
He has understanding of the complex ground realities in the political arena. His grandfather was an MLA from Bareilly and a minister in the Uttar Pradesh government.
Charu Pragya: Daughter of Minister of State for Human Resource Development Satya Pal Singh, Pragya is a member of the BJP’s youth wing BJYM. She has over 28,000 followers on Twitter. Pragya makes her points cogently. She is also part of several global initiatives involving youth leaders.
Vinit Goenka: An active politician with a firm commitment to the nation, he is passionate about tapping technology to change the way India works. Goenka has expertise in diverse fields including information technology, transportation, infrastructure and agriculture.
He is a member of the Governing Council of Centre for Railway Information System, an organisation under the Ministry of Railways.
He was appointed a member of the IT Task Force in the Ministry of Road, Transport and Highways and Shipping Ministry. In these capacities, he works closely with Union Ministers including Nitin Gadkari and Suresh Prabhu on initiatives to achieve the government’s goal of ‘Minimum Government Maximum Governance’.
Rohit Chahal: He is national media in-charge and in-charge of Jammu and Kashmir in BJYM.
Gaurav Bhatia: He is the son of late Samajwadi Party (SP) parliamentarian Virendra Bhatia. A lawyer by profession, he was earlier associated with the SP and brings seriousness to a debate. He has twice served as honorary secretary of the Supreme Court Bar Association, and is now an advocate-on-record.
Syed Zafar Islam: A former investment banker, he joined the BJP ahead of the 2014 Lok Sabha elections. Islam has emerged as a prominent Muslim face of the party on television channels. He is cool and calm during debates.
Amit Malviya: He is chief of the BJP’s social media cell and has reinvented himself into a party spokesperson. Having an Information Technology background, he is ready with figures to buttress his points and is also quick-witted.
Niti Jain: A member of the BJYM, she has experience in advertising and copy writing. She is also a social activist with interests in education, women and youth empowerment and theatre.
Sudesh Verma: A journalist by profession, Verma is a serious and calm face from the BJP in television debates. A former news editor of NewsX television channel, he was also a senior political analyst with the British High Commission for three years (2005-2008). He finally joined the party which he used to cover as a journalist.
Sanju Verma: She is co-convener of BJP Mumbai’s Intellectual Cell and is an entrepreneur. She has served as an Associate Director with JP Morgan and as an Executive Director with HDFC Securities.
Ashish Sood: He has been associated with the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad, the student wing of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh. He was made Vice President of the Delhi unit of the BJYM in 2002 and later became the Vice President of the state unit of the BJP.
Neha Joshi: A social activist, she is the daughter of BJP MLA from Uttarakhand, Ganesh Joshi.