Chamling digital drive for manifesto inputs

RAJEEV RAVIDAS, TT, 24 Mar 2019, Gangtok: The Sikkim Democratic Front (SDF) has sought to emulate the BJP's "MainBhiChowkidar" campaign by launching its own "MaPaniChamling (Me too Chamling)" digital drive to seek public opinion on the issues they want incorporated in the party's election manifesto for the Assembly and Lok Sabha elections in the state.

Just like the BJP's Twitter campaign which also features a musical video where members of the public are shown saying "Main bhi chowkidar hoon (I am a chowkidar too)", the SDF's "MaPaniChamling" website, which was launched on Saturday, features the eponymous song where different sections of people parrot the "Me too Chamling" line.

While the inspiration behind the BJP campaign is Prime Minister Nardendra Modi's oft-repeated claim that he is the watchman of the country, the SDF initiative is to assert that every Sikkimese is on the same page with chief minister Pawan Chamling in his stated mission to ensure peace, progress and prosperity of the Himalayan state.

"Everyone who stands for Sikkim's peace, progress and prosperity is Chamling and we all will work together to make Sikkim the No. 1 state in the world. The campaign will in- volve every Sikkimese in building the Sikkim of their dreams," said Bhim Dahal, a SDF spokesman.

The Chamling campaign aims to connect directly with the state's 4,23,167 voters in, what the SDF called, the largest participative agenda setting exercise in the state's history. "MaPaniChamling is a campaign to build an inclusive manifesto capturing people's aspirations," said the party.

The SDF said the campaign is in line with the innovative, tech-savvy and people-centric campaign strategies adopted by the party to engage with the people. "It will adopt various mediums in order to solicit feedback from the masses. The party will also seek suggestions from various subject matter experts and specialists through different outreach programmes," it said.

P. D. Rai, the sitting Lok Sabha member, said the campaign was also in line with the party's philosophy of "Janta raj ma jantai raja (In people's rule, people are the king)". "Our party president had given the clarion call of `Youth First' and hence we first sought the views of the youth through the `MyFirstVote4Chamling' campaign. We are also going door-to-door ," Rai said.

The SDF's "MyFirstVote4Chamling" campaign was launched on February 5 to directly seek suggestions from firsttime voters, and it has received over 27,000 suggestions till now..