With the Bharatiya Janata Party pulling up its socks for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections and adjacent assembly polls, its Haryana unit is bustling to woo the Jats in the state.
The party is drawing up plans to woo the key community, News18 has learnt. A senior BJP leader said that a section of Jat leaders has got alienated from the party due to the 2020-21 farmers’ agitation and because of “misinformation” fed to them against the party by the media.
However, it is vital for the BJP to woo the community and not remain dependent on ally Jannayak Janata Party to secure Jat votes, say insiders.
In 2019, the BJP got 40 seats out of the 90 in the assembly and had to join hands with the JJP to form the government.
“Our allies may represent a community but that does not stop us from having our reach within that community. We do not like to be dependent on allies to expand our vote bank. Government and party are two different setups,” said the BJP leader.
The party will begin an outreach programme on May 30 that will go on for a month. Ministers and leaders will go among the people to spread the word about the welfare schemes of the central government. The party has drawn up a list of beneficiaries and will hold sammelans (conventions) and interactions with them.
But is the Aam Aadmi Party a cause of concern for the BJP in Haryana?
“It is not. However, we need to keep our Vaishya/Baniya vote bank intact and let it not get gravitate towards AAP,” said the leader.
BJP representatives believe that AAP can have a certain influence over the Baniya community and that needs to be addressed as it is the traditional vote bank of the ruling party.
“We need to listen and take suggestions from our voters and not lecture them. They might be angry over certain things and we need to hear them out and promise solutions,” stated a senior BJP leader.
The party is also focusing on areas where it got fewer votes of a particular community and in avenues where there is scope for improvement.
A senior BJP leader said that from Ambala to Karnal, it has got few votes from the Brahmin community. The party will work on such seats, he added.
With inputs from News18
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