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Not just Gujarat, BJP’s outreach programme for migrants is also aimed at Rajasthan polls

With its outreach programme, the BJP aims to convince Rajasthani migrants in Gujarat to vote for it and to urge their families to vote for the BJP when elections are held in Rajasthan.

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New Delhi: Ahead of the Gujarat assembly elections, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is not leaving any stone unturned to ensure its comeback, reaching out to Rajasthani migrants in the state to persuade them to vote for the party.

But the BJP’s strategy is not limited to Gujarat. An outreach programme has been set in motion to convince families of migrants residing in Gujarat and other states to vote for it in the 2023 Rajasthan assembly elections.

According to a senior BJP leader, Ahmedabad and Surat are home to a sizable population of migrants from Rajasthan that can play a role in the outcome of the Gujarat elections.

“The focus is to win Gujarat in 2022, Rajasthan in 2023 and Lok Sabha elections in 2024. The planning is such that we have already started the outreach programme so that we can understand what are the concerns of the people. Many of the migrants from Rajasthan who are now working in Gujarat have extended families and relatives who stay in Rajasthan. When we hold such programmes in Gujarat, the message reaches Rajasthan too,” the senior BJP functionary told ThePrint.

Satish Poonia, president of the BJP’s Rajasthan unit, had in March toured several parts of Gujarat, urging the diaspora to vote for the party in the assembly elections in both states. During his visits to Ahmedabad and Surat as part of the Pravasi Rajasthani outreach programme, Poonia had stressed that there should be constant communication between what he termed as “migrant brothers and sisters’.

Gujarat Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel was also present at one of these public meetings, a BJP functionary pointed out.

“There is a BJP cell that caters to such communities. The convenor of that cell hails from Rajasthan. There are a number of Rajasthani migrants in Gujarat who have been doing business or engaged in the service industry for decades. The fact that Poonia ji came despite elections being so far right now shows the commitment of the party towards Rajasthani migrants,” said Yamal Vyas, chief spokesperson of Gujarat BJP.

With an eye on the 2023 assembly elections in Rajasthan, Poonia has also been reaching out to migrants from Rajasthan living and working in Maharashtra and Karnataka.


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BJP’s outreach programme

One BJP leader told ThePrint, “Earlier, too, we used to reach out to the public but barely a few months before the assembly elections. People used to view it negatively assuming that leaders were approaching them only for votes. This time around, such meetings with migrants living in Gujarat have already started and Poonia ji has held many meetings.”

According to a BJP functionary, apart from Ahmedabad, Surat, and Vapi, Rajasthani migrants wield considerable influence in a number of seats in Gujarat, especially in Banaskantha and Kutch, which are districts bordering Rajasthan.

“This is a good initiative as not only the migrants are able to connect with their Rajasthani roots, but they are also able to understand what plan of action BJP has for their families in Rajasthan. At the same time, such interactions provide them an opportunity to raise any issues they might have as a community,” said another BJP leader.

“The idea is not only to reach out to people from Rajasthan who have been living and working in Gujarat but at the same time, many of these people still have families in Rajasthan and we are encouraging them to have a dialogue with them and encourage them to vote for the BJP in 2023 Rajasthan elections,” a third BJP leader added.

(Edited by Amrtansh Arora)


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