Eye on Bihar poll, BJP woos migrants in Haryana

With the Bihar Assembly elections just months away, the BJP has begun reaching out to migrants from the state living in Haryana. Besides identifying 12 key districts where a large number of migrants reside, the state party unit has formed multi-layered teams, comprising leaders and cadre, to contact them.

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BJP sources said the party had also set up teams to identify and engage with voters who hail from Bihar but now live and work in Haryana.

Sources said under the "Ek Bharat, Shreshtha Bharat" programme, the Haryana BJP had started a drive to reach out to migrants.

“Initially, the BJP has identified 12 districts where party workers are contacting the migrant population from Bihar,” said a party leader associated with the campaign.

The districts identified by the party are Faridabad, Gurugram, Ambala, Hisar, Jhajjar, Karnal, Kurukshetra, Panchkula, Panipat, Rewari, Sonepat and Yamunanagar. These have a higher concentration of migrant population from Bihar.

The sources said the BJP government in Haryana had also been engaging with the community by taking special steps to facilitate celebrations of its major festivals, like the Chhath Puja.

In the initial phase, prominent individuals from the migrant community are being roped in by the BJP. “As of now, the party teams are in the middle of reaching out to those from Bihar living in Haryana. These people will definitely prove to be valuable for the party during the Bihar elections, as a major chunk of migrants working in Haryana are still enrolled as voters in their native places,” said a party worker.

Chandan, a migrant youth from Bihar who works as a construction worker in Hisar, said his family lives in his native village in Saharsa. “We join our families for festivals and special occasions like elections. I will definitely go back to cast vote during the Assembly poll,” he said.

Archna Gupta, state general secretary of the BJP, who was in-charge of the programme held to mark 'Bihar Diwas' on March 23, said the party had been collecting the data of migrants from Bihar. “But we have been able to procure only limited data so far, as the migrant population is widespread. We may be able to collect comprehensive data in the next two months,” she said, adding that the migrant population from Bihar was in a few lakhs.

Archna said the Haryana Government had been providing all necessary facilities for the religious events of the migrants. “The government has set up three ghats in Panipat, and similar facilities are being established in other districts as well,” she said, adding that the aim was to provide facilities in proportion to their population. She said many seasonal workers were still enrolled as voters in Bihar.