With Tiwari’s slum stay, BJP eyes AAP’s vote bank
NEW DELHI: With an eye on the upcoming civic elections scheduled to be held in April this year, the Bhartiya Janata Party’s Delhi unit launched a programme to woo the AAP vote bank in slum clusters.
Of Delhi’s 1 crore 64 lakh population, as per the 2011 Census, over 18 lakh live in slums. Slum dwellers and those living in the resettlement colonies were loyal voters of the Congress. This changed after the emergence of the Aam Aadmi Party on Delhi’s political horizon.
In the assembly elections in 2013 and then 2015, this vote bank shifted, almost in its entirety, to AAP. Now, with the civic polls nearing, the BJP is trying to make inroads into this significant voter base.
In the coming days, Delhi’s newly-appointed BJP unit chief Manoj Tiwari will spend two nights in a week in a slum to discuss problems that the dwellers are facing.
“The schedule is being prepared and the party president will be staying with a family in jhuggi cluster on every third day. The plan is to cover all districts in two months. This will help us assess their problems and earn their trust,” said a senior Delhi BJP functionary.
Tiwari, a Bhojpuri actorturned-politician, is himself a Member of Parliament from Northeast Delhi, which has several slum clusters and resettle- ment colonies. Sources said that the party is hoping that since Tiwari is himself a Purvanchali, and has portrayed the roles of a common, rural man in his films, he will help BJP wrest the poor voters from the AAP.
The party has also planned two conventions in January and February to mobilise booth-level workers in the run-up to municipal elections. “Maybe, we lost the last elections as here was a disconnect. The party will hold two conventions in which all booth incharges will be told to reach out to each voter in their jurisdiction. The first convention is likely to be held around January 15,”hesaid.
Another party leader confirmed BJP strategy focussing on Dalits and slum dwellers . “Before Tiwari, no previous party chief made such an attempt to convince people living in unauthorised colonies or JJ clusters to vote for the BJP. Unlike the previous presidents, Tiwari has been participating in each event. The AAP government has used the poor for votes but no development work is being undertaken for them,” the party functionary said.
On Monday, Tiwari also participated in a march organised by Delhi BJP’s Scheduled Caste Morcha workers and offered special prayers in Valmiki Mandir at Mandir Marg. The ‘Aabhar March’ was taken out to express solidarity after naming of mobile banking app as ‘Bhim’.
The march started from the temple and culminated at Ambedkar Bhawan near Jhandewalan where he garlanded the statue of Dr Bhimrao Ambedkar.