ROURKELA: In a bid to push Christian voters towards the BJP, Union Minister of State for Minority Affairs John Barla held closed-door meeting with leaders of different churches at Rourkela on Sunday evening.
Barla’s meeting assumes significance as the sizable Christian voters in the tribal-dominated district of Sundargarh traditionally side with the Congress and BJD.
On a two-day visit to Sundargarh Lok Sabha (LS) constituency, Barla reached Rourkela and paid a courtesy visit to the Bishop of the Catholic Diocese here. He held meeting with leaders of different churches at the Mayfair World Cup Village, but the details of the discussion were not revealed.
On Monday, the union minister is scheduled to pay a visit to the Bishop of GEL church at Rajgangpur and also hold closed-door meetings with church leaders in Rajgangpur and Sundargarh Assembly constituencies.
BJP insiders said the meeting was inspired by the saffron party’s agenda of ‘Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikash, Sabka Biswas, Sabka Prayas’ which essentially aims at drawing the minority community members close to it. Among other things, the church leaders were apprised of the welfare programmes and development initiatives of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his government. With such meetings, misgivings about the BJP government and false propaganda of opposition parties to paint the party as anti-minority could be defeated.
Bishop of the Catholic Diocese Father Kishore Kujur said the minister paid him a courtesy visit and during the brief discussion, he appreciated the activities of the Church. There was no political discussion.
Sources said the tribal-dominated Sundargarh district has a sizable Christian population which owes allegiance to churches of Roman Catholic, Baptist, Protestant and others. Majority of them are Catholic Christians. The Christian community as a whole plays a decisive role in the election outcome in the district. Previously, the Congress was pocketing most of Christian votes. But later, the BJD made deep inroads into the Christian vote bank.
In fact, the third-ranked Congress always pins hopes on the votes of Christian community and Bhuiya tribe. If BJD’s Sundargarh LS candidate Dilip Tirkey manages to get the bulk of Christian votes, his victory chances would be brightened. Similarly, any number of Christian votes going to the incumbent Sundargarh MP and BJP candidate Jual Oram would be a bonus for the saffron party.
As per the 2011 census, the district has around 18 per cent Christian population. With around 15.67 lakh registered voters, Sundargarh is believed to have 2.85 lakh to 3.15 lakh Christian voters. Rajgangpur, Birmitrapur, Talsara and Sundargarh Assembly seats have strong concentrations of Christian voters. The size of Christian vote bank in Rourkela, RN Pali and Bonai is relatively smaller.