The BJP has roped in around 150 of its leaders from Bihar to woo the community in the run-up to the February 7 election
As political parties vie for the Purvanchali vote in Delhi, the BJP has roped in around 150 of its leaders from Bihar to woo the community in the run-up to the February 7 election. The strategy was worked out at a meeting BJP president Amit Shah had in Patna recently with the party's top 40 leaders of Bihar. It was decided that the leaders will camp here till February 5 and at least two leaders from the state will campaign in each of the 70 constituencies of Delhi in a bid to reach out to people from Bihar and Eastern Uttar Pradesh, party sources said.
The BJP leaders from the state have already started arriving in Delhi. Senior leaders like Sushil Modi, Mangal Pandey and Nand Kishore Yadav are also expected to join the campaing trail.
The influential segment comprising 30-40 per cent of the electorate has a say in 20-25 seats of Delhi. The BJP is hoping that the support it got in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh during the Lok Sabha elections, when the Aam Admi Party (AAP) factor did not cut ice, will reflect in the Purvanchali vote in Delhi. Besides, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi himself being an MP from eastern UP's Varanasi where he defeated AAP's Arvind Kejriwal, the party feels it has an added advantage of getting the backing of voters from the region.
Party's state vice-president Sanjay Mayukh said the leaders will tell the people "about the situation in Bihar in the Nitish Kumar government when the BJP was an ally and compare it to that after the two parted ways." They will also flaunt the development agenda ever since the Modi government has come to power and try to send a message that despite the JD-U being in power people in the state were "benefiting" from the central schemes.
Sources said the Purvanchalis, most of whom migrated to the capital for work, were heavily influenced by the politics back home in Bihar and UP. "This section has not generally voted en bloc. In the 2008 election, they voted for Shiela Dikshit. They have gone with the general trend.... And now, the Prime Minister himself is an MP from Varanasi and is not seen through the prism of Gujarat alone," said BJP spokesperson GVL Narasimha Rao.
With the AAP factor in the 2013 Delhi assembly election capturing a large section of the Purvanchali votes, the BJP is leaving no stone unturned this time. Last year, after the party's efforts, the lieutenant governor declared Chhath, a major festival of the region, a public holiday for the first time in Delhi.
Shah has made it clear that the party has to fight for "every seat". He met senior party leaders, including some ministers, who have been given responsibility of the Delhi election. The party leaders have been asked to counter the allegations made by Kejriwal and fight the poll on the Modi government's development plank.
For Shah, after Delhi, Bihar will be the next electoral challenge. During the Lok Sabha polls, the BJP had won 31 of the 40 seats in Bihar and 72 of the 80 constituencies in UP.
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