Mumbai civic election: BJP asks citizens to help craft manifesto; 7 lakh offer their thoughts

In a first of any election campaign, the common man is being asked to participate in constructing the manifesto of a national party. The BJP launched this initiative that has seen over seven lakh Mumbaikars providing feedback to Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, as part of his 'Our City Our Agenda' campaign. According to the campaign’s official website, 560,496 suggestions were received through telephone calls, 148044 via WhatsApp messages and over 22,337 people sent in their suggestions via social media.It may be noted that the Shiv Sena, Congress, NCP have already published their manifestos, whereas the BJP will declared its manifesto in the next 72 hours with the help of people's suggestions. The top 20 suggestions will earn their providers an audience with Fadnavis to discuss the manifesto at his Varsha bungalow on Monday evening.And for those who did not make the list, the chief minister's office offers an alternative:Citizens are encouraged to ask questions, give suggestions and vote on the issues raised during the event using hash tag #AskMahaCM.Speaking with Firstpost, the BJP's Mumbai unit chief Ashish Shelar said that this is the first stage towards transparency. "Transparency is the need of the hour. Instead of preparing policies on the basis of a bird’s eye view of people’s problems, this time, we will let the people speak out about their problems. The response has been truly overwhelming, with more than 7 lakh people joined our manifesto campaign 'Our City Our Agenda'," Shelar said.He added that while other parties make their manifestos based on what they think, the BJP will craft its manifesto based on what the people think.