JP in Bengaluru : A quick summary

It has been a wonderful weekend at Loksatta Karnataka Chapter. Dr JP was in town for several events, a conference in Jain University, a talk at IISc (Indian Institute of Science), several press interviews (see our website ) and LSP Members meet.

Details will be posted later, but I realized lot of folks are looking for some news from here browsing the Orkut Official Loksatta community (I discovered this just today, thanks to Raj, sounds like an exciting place to be for all of us LSP members! More power to Orkut!)

The main event undoubtedly is our very first  'members only' meet on Saturday. See [Pictures here ]

When we first decided to do this meeting for members only, we were little worried about the response since attending a public meeting (like we had on the 17th July in Koramangala ) is quite different from enrolling as a member (that too with not a user friendly title "Executive Member") and being a card carrying member of a political party.  But we now learned not to underestimate the passion for LSP!

It was overwhelming to see more than 150 "Executive" members (did I mention 'Executive?') all in one room with Dr. JP for more than 4 hours.  Best part is many of them stayed long after meeting got over
to chat with others and see what they can do next! We are certain that this meeting is going to make a huge difference for our upcoming activities and help us go to the next level!

We started the event with couple of speeches from LSP Karnataka Members. Mr Yogiah, who is one of the first members of LSP in Bangalore, spoke passionately about the door-to-door campaign he started along with a bunch of other volunteers. His team's experience has been terrific in creating the awareness about LSP with local folks who might have never heard of LSP before. Mr. Yogiah is ready to contest the upcoming BBMP polls!  Dr. Meenakshi who is renowned Gynecologist and also spearheading solid waste management activities in Malleshwaram spoke about why she is willing to come into public life and our duties as responsible citizens and leaders.   Dr. JP announced formally that Dr. Meenakshi became an executive member and will be contesting the upcoming BBMP elections in Bangalore. This is indeed a big boost for LSP and we look forward to the upcoming election.

Dr. JP started his speech by lighting a lamp to celebrate Dr. Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan's birthday and speaking briefly about  fundamental rights (fascinated by his deep reverence to our constitution)
and our executive membership model and course of action for near term future.

Since this is designed to be an 'internal' meeting, the members asked extremely relevant questions about building the party, taking our message to people and highlighting our weaknesses etc. We will be posting a summary of questions and responses soon..

One of the common questions we get from new members is 'So, I became a member, what do I do now?' or "I have very little time, how can I contribute?" - we designed the venue in such a way that there are booths set up (somewhat like a conference exhibition) for each of the 'teams' we have created here in Bangalore. For example, a booth for 'Fund Raising', 'Volunteer Management' "Media and PR" , 'Women's group' etc.

We put up brief descriptions of what these groups are supposed to do and volunteers were present to explain the role of each of these groups. New members could discuss with existing members, understand
what the expectations are and then sign up to one of the groups they want to contribute their time to.

Based on my own conversations with more than 40 new faces, I think this went well.  Folks appreciated the clarity and our attempt to make them join a group of their preference rather than asking them on work on something they may not feel comfortable with or not have much passion about!

Many thanks to Mr. Purandhar for providing lunch for all the members at the venue.

More later..