As voting for Delhi’s municipal corporation elections draws near, Bharatiya Janata Party leaders said they are missing Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath as a star campaigner.
Party sources said they tried hard to get time from the UP CM as he is a crowd puller and has the ability to swing votes, but could not due to his prior commitments for bypolls in Gujarat and Uttar Pradesh.
He said, ‘If Yogi ji had campaigned, we would not have worried much about bringing other popular leaders busy in the Gujarat elections. He is so popular that wherever he goes, our votes increase.
Another demand that the party partially fulfilled was that of star, celebrity MPs such as Ravi Kishan and Nirahua, along with Manoj Tiwari.
While Tiwari was campaigning in Gujarat and Delhi, Kishan and Nirahua were roped in during the last two days of campaigning for the MCD elections.
“There is tremendous craze for these MPs among the migrant population of Bihar and UP. What he says and conveys to voters has an impact on them,” said a senior party leader.
The party had roped in union ministers like Piyush Goyal, Dharmendra Pradhan, Anurag Thakur, Narendra Singh Tomar, Ashwini Vaishnav, Kiren Rijiju, and Hardeep Singh Puri, to name a few. Chief ministers like Shivraj Singh Chouhan, Pushkar Singh Dhami, and Jai Ram Thakur, and UP deputy CM Keshav Prasad Maurya campaigned for BJP’s corporation candidates.
According to party sources, she has been able to make inroads among the slum voters, who are considered AAP’s vote bank.
The flats built for the landless camp slum dwellers are a big attraction as the party is taking the slum dwellers to show them the apartments.
“They have high aspiration to lead a dignified life. We’re guessing they now have a growing acceptance of us. We are projecting a 20 per cent increase in vote share in slums as compared to the last polls,” said a source, who believes that the BJP is giving a tough fight to the Aam Aadmi Party.
Another issue that has clearly worked in favor of the saffron party is the AAP government’s move to make liquor more easily available.
“Women from slums and low-income families are angry that such cheap liquor is being made in Delhi. A leader said that our protest against liquor had an impact on women voters as well.
Many in the party believe that the leaked video of Jail Minister Satyendar Jain getting a massage in jail has also tarnished AAP’s image. He said, ‘This time the allegations of corruption against you remain intact. People don’t think you are holy anymore.”
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