BJP deploys legislators from other states in Gujarat to influence voters from their regions

Tribune News Service

Vibha Sharma

New Delhi, November 26

With just 10 days to go before curtains fall on the high-stake Gujarat elections, apart from the high-voltage election rallies led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the ruling BJP is also micromanaging the campaign to ensure maximum gains.

Apparently, therefore, apart from senior leaders and union ministers, the saffron party has also roped in state legislators to woo voters from respective areas. State leaders say that around 100-odd MLAs from states like Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and Maharashtra have been deployed in Gujarat for the last 10 days of the campaign. 

Gujarat will poll in two phases on December 1 and 5, and votes will be counted on December 8.

Seeking to retain power in the home state of PM Modi, the BJP has deployed top leaders, including ‘Hindutva’ vote catchers and influencers like Uttar Pradesh CM Yogi Adityanath and his Assam counterpart Himanta Biswa Sarma, in the fight for the 182-member Assembly.

The party has also deployed “trouble-shooters”, including top state leaders and influential loyalists, to convince rebels to scale down campaigns against BJP’s official candidates, they add.

Meanwhile, to woo voters from other states, senior leaders like union minister Dharmendra Pradhan and several non-Gujarat MLAs are said to be holding meetings with people from respective states settled in the state, sources said.

Gujarat has a sizeable population from Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar working in the industrial parts. Apart from the fact that these leaders can communicate with people from their region in their own language in a better way, the BJP is also hoping to work around some of the anti-incumbency using this method.        

Sources say that before finalising candidates the BJP had conducted surveys about candidates in which several voters expressed reservations against the sitting legislators.

While the BJP dropped around 40 sitting MLAs, including senior leaders and ministers, to counter the anti-incumbency factor, the central leadership decided to use MLAs from other states to take care of any resentment, which, state leaders say, is expected given the fact that the party has been in power for close to three decades in the state.  

“This is like moving one step ahead of the ‘panna pramukhs’ whose job is to make sure that people cast their vote for the party,” according to a state leader. The BJP, through its well-entrenched network of booth-level cadres, micromanages voters, ensuring they come out to vote on the election day.

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