Poll effect: City BJP keen to woo back traditional voters

Saffron party failed to win support of Punjabi, baniya voters after 1993 BJP has been out of power in Delhi since 1998. It first rode to power in 1993 with the support of Punjabi and baniya voters, but failed to retain its traditional vote bank and was r

The outcome of the Haryana Assembly elections has set the Delhi unit of the BJP thinking on how to woo back its traditional voters to ensure the party’s victory in the coming elections.

The party has been out of power in Delhi since 1998. The saffron party, which first rode to power in 1993 with the support of the Punjabi and baniya voters, had failed to retain its traditional vote bank and was reduced to just three seats in the 70-member Assembly in the 2015 elections.

A senior party leader told this newspaper that from the poll outcome in Haryana and Maharashtra, it is clear that any imbalance in the traditional vote bank will not give the desired results to any political outfit. “Initial analysis shows that Jats and Marathas have voted against us in Haryana and Maharashtra. In the last couple of years, the party leadership has not focused

much on its traditional support base of Punjabi and Baniya (traders) voters in the national capital. Instead, the party’s focus has been on wooing only the Poorvanchali voters,” he said.

“Everyone is important and the party must make inroads into the new vote bank. The message from the outcome of the two state Assembly elections is loud and clear that one should not stray away from its traditional support base,” the senior party leader added.

Another senior saffron leader said that Congress

has already appointed Subhash Chopra, a Punjabi, as its Delhi unit president and cricketerturned-politician Kirti Azad, a Poorvanchali, as the head of its campaign committee to woo traditional and new voters.

However, things are quite different with BJP, which has so far not paid much attention to its erstwhile traditional vote bank of Punjabis and Baniyas in Delhi.

A party leader suggested that the saffron leadership must woo Poorvanchalis but at the same time make serious attempts to win back the trust of the Punjabi and baniya communities.

“Leaders from the Punjabi and Baniya community must be promoted and given key role in the organisational set-up along with the Poorvanchalis,” he added.

Concerned over the disgruntled Jat community, which voted against the party in Haryana, a senior party leader from South Delhi said that if the community does not vote in its favour, it will be very difficult to win the Jat-dominated seats like Mundka, Najafgarh, Narela, Bawana, Kirari, Nangloi Jat, Vikaspuri, Matiala, Bijwasan, Mehrauli, R.K. Puram and Rithala.

The BJP had failed to win even a single Assembly constituency dominated by the Jats in the 2015 polls. “If we fail to woo back the Jat community, it will weaken our chances to return to power after two decades. Now, it is necessary to win back all the traditional voters of the city,” a BJP MP said.