Gurugram: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has intensified its outreach to Bihari migrants in Haryana, aiming to strengthen the position of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) as Bihar prepares for assembly elections.
The mobilisation gained urgency in the wake of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in Bihar, in which nearly 50 lakh names were removed by the Election Commission from the final voters’ list. Many of the deleted electors were identified as either having died, permanently shifted from their addresses, registered at more than one assembly, or untraceable.
Many of those disenfranchised in Bihar have likely shifted to other states, included Haryana, and the BJP plans to contact such migrants.
Dushyant Bhatt, BJP district president in Panipat, an industrial town with a sizeable population of Bihari migrants, told ThePrint that the party was identifying and reaching out to those who had lost their votes in the SIR, apart from mobilising Bihari migrants who still have their votes in their native state.
“Our people are identifying Bihari migrants who have permanently settled in Haryana, and have their votes here. These are the people whose votes have been deleted in Bihar during the SIR exercise. We plan to include these people as ‘vistaraks’ (amplifiers) and send them to Bihar to mobilise their friends and extended family members for NDA candidates in the state poll,” he said.
“From Panipat alone, we plan to send over 800 people as ‘vistaraks’. On the other hand, those who have come here for work and are registered as voters in Bihar will also be helped to visit Bihar and cast their votes.”
Bihar will vote on 6 and 11 November. The results will be declared on 14 November.
Bhatt explained that the party would approach companies, asking them to provide such migrants with paid leave so that they can discharge their duty and exercise their right to franchise.
“We will exhort the industry to provide them with some extra payment so that they can easily go to their homes by arrangement of vehicles,” Bhatt said.
He estimated that Panipat alone has more than 25,000 Bihari migrants with votes in Bihar, and over 2,200 who have settled permanently in the city.
Parveen Jora, district president of BJP’s Fatehabad unit, told ThePrint that the party’s main focus was on 14 districts of Haryana where the concentration of Bihari migrants was high.
“These districts, mostly in the National Capital Region, like Gurugram, Faridabad, Palwal, Rohtak, Jhajjar, Sonipat, Panipat, Karnal, etc, have many industries and hence, Bihari labour abounds. Bihari migrants largely work in industries, while those in other districts involved in construction and other activities are largely from Uttar Pradesh, Odisha, Rajasthan,” he added.
BJP spokesperson Sanjay Sharma said a meeting had been organised at Chief Minister Nayab Saini’s residence Wednesday to plan a strategy for the mobilisation of Bihari migrants.
He said party functionaries had already contacted more than 1 lakh of 2-3 lakh Bihari-origin residents, exhorting them to return to their constituencies in Bihar to vote for the NDA.
“Special trains will be run close to the polling dates, so that Bihari migrants can go home and discharge their democratic duty,” said Sharma.
Asked whether the BJP plans to pay for their transportation, Sharma replied in the negative and said the party would only ensure they don’t have a problem in reaching their respective constituencies.
Also Read: SC takes note of ‘confusion’ over Bihar voters’ list, seeks clarification from EC on new voters
‘Tremendous enthusiasm’
On Wednesday, Saini and BJP state chief Mohan Lal Badoli chaired a meeting of party functionaries in Chandigarh to chalk out the campaign. Organisation secretary Phanindra Nath Sharma, general secretary Archana Gupta, district presidents and Bihari-origin workers of the BJP were in attendance.
Badoli told the media after the meeting that there was tremendous enthusiasm among Bihari residents to support NDA candidates. He said that 54 senior Haryana BJP leaders had been assigned Bihar duties, with 25 already campaigning there.
The leaders tasked with Bihar duties include Union minister Krishan Pal Gurjar, state ministers Vipul Goyal, Rao Narbir Singh, Krishan Kumar Bedi, Gaurav Gautam and Rajesh Nagar, as well as MLAs and former ministers like Om Prakash Yadav.
Badoli dismissed the Opposition’s charge that the deletion of votes during the SIR exercise amounted to ‘vote chori’, and said the names of those who had permanently settled in other states had been struck off.
The BJP’s endeavours are being seen as an extension of earlier efforts to attract Bihari migrants through state-sponsored events celebrating their cultural festivals such as Chhath Puja.
In the past two years in particular, the Haryana government has organised grand public celebrations of Chhath—a major festival for Biharis—in various districts where Bihari migrants are in large numbers.
These initiatives were meant to foster goodwill, with the BJP positioning itself as a supporter of migrants’ traditions while urging their electoral participation.
(Edited by Nida Fatima Siddiqui)
Also Read: 50 lakh names deleted. Bihar loses 6% of voters post-SIR amid Oppn’s allegations of ‘vote chori’