CHANDIGARH: The Haryana unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has devised a multi-pronged strategy to assist the migrant population from Bihar living in Haryana to return home and cast their votes in the forthcoming polls.
Bihar goes to polls in two phases on Nov 6 and 11.
Special buses have been arranged to ferry these voters back to Bihar, and factory owners have been requested to grant paid leave to migrant workers.
As the NDA and the Mahagathbandhan engage in a tough contest, the saffron party hopes its efforts will impress natives of Bihar residing in Haryana and help sway the vote. This move is part of the BJP’s broader strategy to maximize voter turnout in the Bihar elections. According to party sources, the initiative also aims to ensure that migrant workers exercise their right to vote and encourage others to do the same, regardless of their political preferences.
Sources said the party has identified a significant population of migrants from Bihar living across 12 districts of Haryana. The majority of these voters are industrial labourers employed in factories across the National Capital Region (NCR) — including Gurugram, Faridabad, Rewari, Jhajjar, Rohtak, Sonipat, Kurukshetra, Panipat, Hisar, Ambala, Yamunanagar, and Karnal. The saffron party has contacted over one lakh voters residing in Haryana, while the total number of migrants from Bihar with votes registered back home is estimated to be between 2.5 and 3 lakh.
The strategy aims to ensure that these registered Bihar voters are present at their respective polling booths on election day. “The party’s outreach focuses on promoting the BJP government’s message of good governance, drawing a clear contrast with the past,” said a party leader.
Sources added that the BJP had initiated this strategy months earlier, during Bihar Diwas celebrations in March, with an eye on the upcoming Bihar elections in November. The outreach, designed to strengthen “emotional and social bonds,” culminated during Chhath Puja festivities, which were attended by Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini.
Recently, the BJP organized a series of meetings — including one chaired by CM Nayab Singh Saini — to finalize the election strategy. Senior leaders were assigned specific responsibilities to handle the logistical arrangements for migrant voters, ensuring their presence in Bihar on polling day. To facilitate this, the party is dispatching Vistarakas (campaign workers) from Haryana to Bihar for voter mobilization and engagement.
Haryana BJP leaders are also actively reaching out to factory owners, urging them to grant paid leave to Bihari migrant workers to remove a major obstacle to their participation in the assembly polls, sources said.
