Bihar to the rescue of BJP's Delhi unit

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has brought in dozens of its MLAs, Members of Parliament and hordes of workers from eastern Uttar Pradesh and Bihar to campaign for the party in the Delhi assembly polls. Top Bihar leaders are camped in Delhi to canvass support for the BJP among the sizeable ‘purbanchali’ voters. The workers have been tasked to distribute 30 lakh letters, that is a letter to each of Delhi's voting households so that it reaches all its 1.3 crore voters, about the achievements of the Narendra Modi government and the party's plans for Delhi.

The state leaders are trying to compensate for the BJP’s strategy to field only three candidates with roots in eastern UP and Bihar across Delhi’s 70-seats. The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has fielded a dozen ‘purbanchali’ candidates. Voters from the region comprise over 30 to 40 per cent in over a third of Delhi seats. A key BJP strategist for Delhi says that the ticket distribution came on the heels of BJP’s failed attempts to reach out to ‘purbanchali’ voters. “It isn’t that we didn’t try but we realised that we couldn’t even fill half the venue during our meetings with purbanchali samaj,” he said.

Over the past week, important BJP leaders from Bihar have ceaselessly campaigned for the party. Bihar party chief Sushil Kumar Modi addressed rallies on Sunday. Among other notable Bihar leaders, minister of state for parliamentary affairs Rajiv Pratap Rudy has been campaigning for the party as has Nawada MP Giriraj Singh.“Voters from Purbanchal are fully behind Prime Minister Narendra Modi. I received a very good response in my meetings at Kirari, Bawana and Badli,” Sushil Kumar Modi said. In all, BJP has pushed 250 central and state leaders to campaign for the party.

But more than the leaders, it’s the party workers from Bihar that have become crucial to BJP’s campaign in Delhi. These BJP and Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) workers are helping BJP with routine electoral works like distributing election material and doing door to door campaigning and will distribute the 30-odd lakh letters, addressed to the head of the family, about Modi government's achievements. The workers are filling the void left by a dispirited local unit, upset with the party announcing an ‘outsider’ in Kiran Bedi as its chief ministerial candidate.

The BJP has also reached out to other groups. Today, Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha organised a 'north east milan' with people from north eastern states at its Delhi BJP office. Minister of State for Home Kiren Rijiju and party's youth leader Anurag Thakur were present at the meeting. It has held a similar outreach for Garhwali-Kumaoni communities from Uttarakhand, even promising an "academy" in its vision document. The 'academy' will promote the language and culture of the region.

Last week, party president Amit Shah addressed a meeting of BJP supporters, workers and leaders from Madhya Pradesh. Madhya Pradesh CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan and others were present on the occasion. Hundreds of BJP workers from that state are in Delhi to campaign for the party.

A strong contingent of ministers from Gujarat government is also in Delhi, while a team of young tech experts from that state are busy handling the party's 'selfie with Modi' campaign.