Eye on migrant votes, BJP ropes in non-Karnataka leaders

BENGALURU: In a bid to ramp up the party’s performance in Bengaluru in May 10 assembly elections, BJP has set its eyes on the city’s migrant population. It has deployed over 50 young MLAs, MPs an d office-bearers from party-ruled states in north and western India to woo these voters.
With lakhs of migrant settlers, both from North India and South India, turning out to be decisive in some constituencies, BJP is going all out to connect with them. Sources in Karnataka BJP confirmed to TOI that deploying these young leaders from other states is one of the several strategies that the party has adopted to connect with the voters.
Gujarat legislator Hardik Patel, who led the Patidar movement, Madhya Pradesh BJP chief MD Sharma, Surat legislator Pravin Ghoghari, Maharashtra legislator Vinod Tawde, Manish Jaiswal from Jharkhand and several others have been deployed in several key constituencies.
“The aim of roping in these leaders was to ensure the party’s connect with the outof-state population, especially those from North Indian states.
For many years, several North Indian residents in Bengaluru abstained from voting as they would have enrolled in their home states. However, this time many have enrolled in the city’s electoral list, especially in Bengaluru S outh and Mahadevap ura,” said a senior functionary.
“As a party, it is our utmost priority to connect with them as well. The major problem in reaching out to them is the language and this gap will be bridged by these influencers who supervise over networking and connect with such voters’ pockets,” he added.
An office-bearer said: “They have been para-dropped in every constituency and will engage with the grassroots workers daily. While the constituency prabharis (local BJP Pramukhs) will focus o n liaisoning with party and campaigning activities, these key leaders will engage with the booth in-charge, page pramukhs and workers, overseeing the party’s reach at the grassroots level. In many cases, they have gone around with workers to interact with voters. ”
“The common factoramong the out-of-state migrant population is ‘Hindi’ and these leaders will look after the candidate’s reach among these societies. Similarly, some Kerala and Tamil Nadu leaders have been brought to the city to liaise with Tamil and Malayalam-speaking population in Mahadevapura, Sarvajna Nagar and CV Raman Nagar,” the office-bearer said.
A BJP candidate said the migrant population may not be as dominant as Vokkaligas or OBCs. “BTM Layout, Mahadevapura, CV Raman Nagar, Byatarayanapura, and Bangalore South have a migrant popul ation of 25,000-30,000 each on average and their support is crucial. In 2018, Congress topped the chart with 15 MLAs out of the 28 constituencies. Later three MLAs defected to BJP to increase the tally to 15. Bengaluru, with 28 constituencies, is a crucial region both in terms of economy and political influence. . . ,” he added.