NEW DELHI: The BJP has intensified its campaign in the rural areas of the national capital to woo rural votes in the Lok Sabha elections.
The party’s election in-charge for the parliamentary polls, OP Dhankar, kickstarted the campaign on Saturday in the rural belt of west Delhi and addressed two public meetings at the Matiala assembly at Shyam Vihar and Rawta Moud.
The BJP’s campaign push in the rural areas came when the party celebrated its foundation day on Saturday. Dhankar hoisted the party’s flag at Mata Bhatee School’s terrace in Sector 19 Dwarka.
There are 357 villages in Delhi, which lie in different districts. The west district (not the parliamentary constituency) has three subdivisions—Patel Nagar, Punjabi Bagh, and Rajouri Garden—with 30 villages. The southwest district, with subdivisions like Dwarka, Kapashehra, and Najafgarh, has more than 65 villages.
Delhi’s Transport Minister Kailash Gahlot is the current Aam Aadmi party MLA from the Najafgarh assembly constituency. In 2020 Assembly polls, he defeated his rival, Ajeet Singh Kharkhari, from BJP by a thin margin of around 6,000 votes.
The BJP candidate from the West Delhi parliamentary constituency, Kamaljeet Sehrawat, while addressing a gathering at Shaym Vihar, said Prime Minister Narendra Modi has visited Dwarka and Matiala several times during the last five years and given the area development hotspot, Yeshobhumi, apart from the Urban Extension Road infrastructure project. “I call upon the people of Dwarka, Najafgarh belt, to stand by BJP for extensive development,” she said. Dhankar said that the rural belts of Delhi have steadfastly stood by PM Modi, and he further called upon the people of Matiala to ensure the highest-ever voter turnout in favour. The BJP has replaced all its sitting MPs except one–Manoj Tiwari–while the opposition AAP and Congress have allied with 4:3 seat-sharing agreements.