BJP promises safe Delhi for people from northeast

The BJP Monday wooed voters hailing from the northeastern states, and promised them special insulation from harassment and discrimination they have been facing in the national capital.

The Bharatiya Janata Party will make policies for people from the northeast, when the party wins the Dec 4 assembly elections in Delhi, former BJP president and Delhi poll in-charge Nitin Gadkari said at a public meeting.

Despite Delhi having more than 2.5 lakh voters from northeast India, people from the region have always faced ignorance and have been brushed aside, when it comes to giving equal status in whichever arena it may be, Gadkari said.

The Congress government in Delhi has never taken any initiative for the welfare of people from northeast India, he said.

They have always been humiliated and neglected by the government, he said.

"It was under the (BJP-led) NDA government, when development touched the northeastern region for the first time, may it be mobile technology, industrialisation, construction of new airports, good education...," he said.

Despite their 15-year rule, the Shiela Dikshit-led government has not taken initiatives against rising crime against women from the northeast.

It was not the failure of policies, but lack of intention from the government, he said.

"Being Indians, people from the northeast have equal rights in everything as any citizen from any other state of the country has. Once the BJP forms the government in Delhi, it will break all barriers that comes in the way between the northeastern people and their development," Gadkari said.

BJP's chief ministerial candidate Harshvardhan also said the first thing the party will do once it comes to power in Delhi will be to set up a safe environment for people from the northeast.

"Our policies for the northeastern people will be based on human value and quality development," he said.