FILE: Prime Minister Narendra Modi (Agence France-Presse photo)
Prime Minister Narendra Modi may lead a nationwide mass contact programme on May 26, when his government completes a year in office, and could spend the day either in Varanasi, his Lok Sabha constituency in Uttar Pradesh, or in a remote part of the country, sources said.
The Prime Minister, they said, is keen to take events planned to mark the day out of the capital.
Cabinet ministers, the sources said, have been asked to travel across the country on that day to join the ruling BJP's mass contact programme and tell the people about the Modi government's achievements in its first year.
The BJP has already announced a three-month
Jan Sampark Karyakram or mass contact programme, to take forward its membership drive, which ended last week with party chief Amit Shah announcing that it is now the largest party in the world.
The membership drive had begun on November 1 with Mr Shah inducting PM Modi afresh as the first member. Since then, the party says, 10.5 crore members have been added.
The mass contact programme takes that initiative forward - Amit Shah said party workers will go door to door to meet new members, verify their memberships - many of which were done through SMSes - and talk to them about the BJP's ideology.
Mr Shah set the ball rolling by meeting first member PM Modi last week.
After the mass contact drive ends on July 31, the party plans to launch a training programme for its workers.