Gujarat cell urges UP migrants to go home and ‘vote for BJP’

The Bhasha Bhashi wing has been carrying out meetings across Gujarat to to convince people to go to UP and work for a BJP candidate. The wing completed their tours in Jamnagar, Bhavnagar, Porbandar and Ahmedabad, and is currently on their three-day tour in South Gujarat that began Tuesday.

The Bhash bhashi wing is among the BJP’s morchas with 24 members in the state body comprising of a convenor, two co convenors and 21 members. “The body has people from other states residing in Gujarat. There is also our district body which comprises of a convenor and seven members. We have our reach in all the districts where people from other states stay. We have planned to send around 2 lakh people to UP for the elections,” said Sharma.

The teams led by Sharma carried out meetings in Navsari, Dangs and Vapi in Valsad district on Tuesday and Tapi, Surat and Narmada districts on Wednesday.

“The motive behind this campaign is to re-elect Yogi Adityanath government in UP. A large number of people from UP work in Vapi industries. On Tuesday, we held a meeting at Chhiri area in Vapi where over 300 people from various walks attended. We requested them to go to their native place in UP and vote for the BJP, and also make their family members and relatives do the same,” said Sharma, adding that “four buses left from Vapi on Tuesday and many people will go in the coming days”.

The cell convener also said that meetings have been carried out in Navsari, Vyara and Dangs, “which were attended by hundreds of people who assured us that they will support the BJP candidates”.

“Those who are interested have started registering their names with the Bhasha Bhashi cell. They are going voluntarily with their own money. We will soon organise a similar meeting in Surat where a large number of people from UP reside. We have set a target of sending maximum number of people from Gujarat to UP,” he added.

Former municipal corporator of the Surat Municipal Corporation (SMC), Yujuvendra Dubey, who hails from Jaunpur district in UP, has been living in Surat for 15 years, and works as a labour contractor in textile factories.

“We have been given the task to work in the Mungra Badshahpur assembly seat in Jaunpur district in UP. Our BJP candidate is Ajay Shanker Dubey, who contested on the same seat from Congress party in 2017 assembly elections but lost to Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) candidate Sushma Patel. Dubey was influenced by the working style of Yogi Adityanath and joined BJP,” said Dubey.

“Our task is to woo voters and get him elected. The election of Mungra Badshahpur is on March 7, so we have enough time to prepare,” he added.

Elaborating on the cell’s procedure, Dubey said that data of those hailing from Mungra Badshahpur and residing in Surat city are being collected.

“There are 31 people working with me and we have made WhatsApp groups of migrants who are willing to go to their native places to support and work for the BJP candidate. We have identified around 300 people and on a daily basis names are being added,” said Dubey adding they will be sent in different groups.

“Buses will start leaving from February 14 and continue till February 25… These people will stay at their native place and convince their neighbours and villagers also to vote for BJP,” he added.

According to Dubey, this is not the first time the state unit of the BJP has undertaken such an operation. “We participated in such practice during earlier assembly elections and Lok Sabha elections in UP and it was fruitful,” Dubey told The Indian Express.