BENGALURU: In order to woo the non-Kannada-speaking voters in the state, the Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP) has roped in young MLAs and party workers to connect with the migrant population.
Sources from the BJP said that around 50 younger leaders have been appointed in various constituencies and asked to campaign for the party along with the candidates. These young leaders belong to different states which include Gujarat legislator Hardik Patel, who led the Patidar movement, VD Sharma: Madhya Pradesh BJP chief, Maharashtra legislator Vinod Tawde, Surat legislator Pravin Ghoghari, and Manish Jaiswal from Jharkhand.
They are in Bengaluru to ramp up the party’s performance in some key Hindi-speaking constituencies such as BTM Layout, Mahadevapura, CV Raman Nagar, Byatarayanapura, and Bangalore South.
Hardik Patel, a member of the Gujarat Legislative Assembly has been in Bengaluru for the past 7 days campaigning for the party. He has been assigned the BTM constituency for the Karnataka assembly elections by the party leadership. Speaking to this newspaper he said, “ There are more than 25% Hindi speaking voters in BTM constituency. They all want BJP to come to power. We have been addressing their issues and asking them to vote consciously.”
He also said that “BTM residents want development like Gujarat” and that the party is not just looking at “double engine government but triple engine” referring to BJP being at all three levels, local, state and central government.
VD Sharma, BJP Madhya Pradesh chief was allotted the Malleswaram constituency. During his two-day visit, he said, “We formed small groups and interacted with the voters, especially the first-timers.” He also added that he had spoken to many North Indian residents and businessmen claiming they all had a positive response towards BJP. Manish Jaiswal, MLA Jharkhand was assigned the Yeshwanthpur constituency to convince Hindi speaking voters.
To take migrant voters in confidence young leaders have been engaging with grassroots workers in the state with door-to-door campaigns and have also released their manifesto in different languages including Kannada, English, Hindi and Telugu. Leaders from Tamil Nadu and Kerala have also been roped in to campaign in the city. First-time voters in the state will also receive a letter from the BJP to vote for the party.