Berhampur: BJP leaders and Union ministers have taken to lunch politics to reach out to the public in Ganjam district as 2024 elections draw nearer.
The BJP leaders and Union ministers during their visit to the district are visiting houses of the poor and the Dalit people and having breakfast and lunch with them. This has sparked intense discussion in the political circles.
Questions are doing the rounds whether the move by the saffron party leaders will pay off while leaders of other political parties have termed it as a political stunt and hypocrisy. Leaders of other political parties said that the BJP leaders have adopted the tactics to win votes as the general election is scheduled for 2024.
Meanwhile, BJP has set its eye on the Aska and Berhampur Lok Sabha segments for the 2024 elections. The saffron party hopes to win these two Lok Sabha seats as its vote share increased here in 2019 in comparison to 2014 elections.
Residents claim that the saffron party has launched early preparations as there is every possibility that the elections may be held ahead of the schedule. Reports said that the then BJP National President Amit Shah had come to Berhampur on a one-day visit July 4, 2017 ahead of the 2019 elections and attended a party programme at Hugulapata under Gopalpur Assembly segment near the Silk City.
There he visited the house of Naveen Swain, a poor street vendor in the area and had lunch with him in his dilapidated house. Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan and other party leaders also joined him during the lunch.
The BJP party leaders also gave away Rs 1 lakh financial assistance to Naveen after the return of Shah. This gave rise to politics in the area as BJD leaders later claimed that Naveen was a party worker of the state’s ruling party.
Five years later, the Union Minister of State for Railways and Textile Darshana Jordosh is regularly touring the district with an eye on 2024 elections. She is in charge of Berhampur and Aska Lok Sabha segments.
She also undertook a three-day tour of the Berhampur Lok Sabha segment starting from January 9. She attended various party programmes in Gopalpur on the last leg of her tour January 11 and visited the house of a fisherwoman Kameshwari and had lunch with her.
Darshana during her visit highlighted about the woman empowerment initiatives and the Prime Minister’s Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana. Onlookers claimed that this was an attempt by her to win the support of women voters.
Two more senior leaders of BJP Mahila Morcha Sanjita Dogra and Madhavi Bhuta had also visited the Berhampur and Aska Lok Sabha segments before Darshana and mainly sensitised the women voters about the welfare schemes of the Centre. Darshana during her visit attended a special programme with the newly enlisted young voters at Golanthara in Ganjam district.
Therefore it is presumed that BJP which has started preparations for 2024 elections is mainly targeting the women and young voters and trying to attract them into party fold.
The state government led by the BJD has been attaching utmost priority to Mission Shakti and women’s welfare and taking a number of steps to make them self-reliant. The saffron party is trying to counter the BJD plan and is trying to win over the support of the women voters, political analysts said.
PNN