Tiwari to resume stays at slums in outreach drive
TIWARI HAS SPENT SEVERAL NIGHTS IN SLUMS SINCE TAKING OVER AS BJP’S DELHI PRESIDENT IN 2016
NEWDELHI: Delhi Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) chief Manoj Tiwari will spend nights with slum dwellers and residents of unauthorised colonies from December 10, as part of the party’s outreach programme to the citizens in these areas, which are considered Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) strongholds.
Tiwari has spent several nights in many slums, unauthorised colonies and villages since taking over as the president of BJP’S Delhi unit in 2016. His first night stay was at the Gas Godam slum at B block, Inderpuri, on December 31, 2016. Tiwari had then highlighted the problems faced by people living in these areas and attacked the AAP for not providing essential services.
“I’m going to resume night stays in slums and villages from December 10. I will also revisit all the areas where I had previously stayed to do a reality check on whether the situation there has improved. During my previous stays, we had highlighted the problems faced by the people,” Tiwari said.
BJP members say that Tiwari will spend nights in all 14 organisational districts of the party in Delhi. To make inroads into the AAP’S strongholds, which were earlier a loyal voter base of the Congress, BJP leaders reiterated the need to connect with people in these areas on Tuesday. Addressing party members at a monthly meeting, BJP’S Delhi unit in-charge Shyam Jaju asked partymen to campaign aggressively to “expose the AAP”. Many of the slums and illegal colonies are populated by the Purvanchalis, migrants from eastern UP and Bihar, and members of the Scheduled Caste. Purvanchalis form a sizeable chunk of the voters and all parties in Delhi have courted them to their fold.
“The AAP had won the 2015 Delhi assembly elections due to the support it got from these areas. We have an organisational setup in slums and unauthorised colonies. We won the Lok Sabha election in 2014 and the municipal election in 2017. We just have to intensify our drive to expose the AAP, which has not done anything for the people in these areas ever since it came to power,” Jaju said. BJP members said that the party was focusing on scheduled caste-dominated areas also.
BJP leaders said the ruling party in Delhi has diverting people’s attention by highlight the “fabricated attack” on chief minister Arvind Kejriwal. “They have called a special session for the fabricated attack on the CM. Why are they not discussing issues like air pollution that really affects the people of Delhi? The AAP government has failed to address key concerns of the people. We have asked party workers to tell people about these issues,” Tiwari said.
This is for the second time that the BJP has decided to step up its campaign in these areas. Ahead of the municipal elections in 2017, Tiwari, who is also the party’s Purvanchali face, had held several major party events in slums and unauthorised colonies in the city.