The BJP state unit is in the midst of an organisational election process, which will culminate with the election of its president next month. The party's general secretary in charge of Odisha Arun Singh is in Bhubaneswar to consult with state leaders and grassroots-level workers. Subrat Das of The Telegraph spoke to him on the party's strategies to strengthen its support base in the state and face future elections

A new party president in the state would take over early next year. A new set of leaders will manage the next general elections and panchayat polls. How do you plan to prepare the party to counter the BJD?

We are strengthening the party's organisation at the grassroots level. In the state, we had 451 mandal committees and the number has now gone up to 997. To strengthen the party, we intend to hold at least one agitation a month, be it a dharna or a demonstration, at the mandal level on local issues such as roads, drinking water, health and corruption. If we take up more local issues, people will repose faith on our party and its leadership. At the district level, we will organise one agitation every three months, and at the state level, two agitations a year. Consequently, the grassroots-level leaders and workers will be involved in at least 18 agitations a year. By this, we can counter the self-help group network of the BJD.

Our membership in the state has grown from three lakh in 2012 to 32 lakh now. So, our organisational base has expanded in the process.

You are attaching so much importance to mandal-level leaders. How do you propose to select or elect the new mandal presidents and other office-bearers?

We will be doing an exercise over the next four days. We are calling 30 to 35 active and responsible grassroots leaders from each district to arrive at a consensus on the candidates for the mandal presidents. In the process, we will consult around 1,000 grassroots leaders from 37 organisational districts across the state in the next four days.

When is the organisational process expected to be over in the state?

By January first week, the state president will be chosen and then he will constitute his team. The district-level elections will be over by the end of this month.

Will the state president be elected or nominated by the central leadership?

There will be no election. We will come to a consensus through consultations.

Which region will be given the priority while choosing the state president?

There is no fixed focus on any region. In the party structure, we will ensure representation from all the regions. Besides the state president, we want to have five strong and dynamic general secretaries representing various regions. We will definitely focus on coastal and southern regions, where our party's support base is comparatively weak.

How will you take on the BJD, which has been in power for 15 years now?

We will prove that the Naveen Patnaik government in Odisha is inefficient and incapable of delivering.

We will expose the failures and misdeeds of the state government as well as their party legislators at the grassroots level.

The process will start from down and climb up, not the other way round.

Apart from harping on the anti-incumbency factor, we will highlight the achievements of 13 BJP-ruled states and the Narendra Modi government at the Centre.

We will prepare and circulate booklets as part of our campaign against the state government.