Ahead of Gujarat polls, BJP eyes OBC votes with the Modi card, mobilises MPs & MLAs

The party is relying on its previous efforts to consolidate the OBC votes and build on the idea of PM Modi being from the community

As Assembly elections in Gujarat draw closer, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is intensifying its efforts in the state, relying on its previous efforts to consolidate the Other Backwards Classes (OBC) votes, building on the idea of PM Narendra Modi being from the community. Legislators from different states have also been carrying out ground work and campaigns across constituencies.

The party has entrusted MPs and MLAs from various states with respective constituencies to carry out three-day-long pravas exercises, as part of which they have to spend days in the constituencies holding booth-level meetings. These campaigns, where the legislators highlighted achievements of the BJP governments in the state as well as the Centre, concluded on Sunday.

The BJP is also focusing on the OBC community, which accounts for over half of the state’s total electorate. In 2017, the OBC push was the key thrust for the BJP’s victory flight. The party has been in power in the state for six terms and eyes a seventh.

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Sources said that the Gujarat OBC Morcha has been holding meetings with various communities within the OBC block with CM Bhupendra Patel. There are over 145 sub-groups within the OBC community. The Morcha has also worked out seats for as many as 40 OBC candidates among the state’s 182 seats.

Apart from that, the party is also holding dialogues with leaders from the Pasmanda Muslim community, OBC Morcha president Dr K Laxman said, who was also part of the pravas at Dwarka district. “We’ve been holding meetings across the state with leaders of the Pasmanda Muslim community, convincing them to come over to our side. While the Congress played the politics of appeasement, the BJP seeks to uplift the most underprivileged within the community,” he said.

The party had announced a resolution to warm up to the Pasmanda Muslim community during its National Executive meet at Hyderabad earlier this year. OBC Morcha leaders said that the national executive of the OBC Morcha was held in Gujarat’s Kevadia earlier this year with elections in mind.