BJP tries to woo tribals with visits to reserved seats, tooting horn of ‘development’

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) ministers visited Gujarat’s 27 assembly constituencies reserved for Scheduled Tribes (ST) on Tuesday to celebrate World Tribal Day, and Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel led the state-sponsored event at Dahod district’s Jhalod in central Gujarat.

The ministers’ visit to districts with a higher concentration of tribal population was seen as the BJP’s outreach programme to woo Adivasi voters, even though the sources in the party denied the event had any association with the Assembly elections, scheduled later this year.

The BJP, seeking to retain its power in the state it has been ruling since 1995, did not perform well in the tribal-dominated Assembly seats. Out of 27 seats reserved for ST candidates, the ruling party won only nine, while the Indian National Congress bagged 15.

Also Read | 'Revadi' culture in Gujarat: AAP making BJP sweat

Subsequently, the BJP has been aggressively reaching out to tribal voters, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi visiting tribal areas to launch infrastructure development works for the past couple of months. Modi has visited several places in the state’s central and southern region, which is also Gujarat’s tribal belt.

Tribal development minister Naresh Patel had announced in the state capital that his fellow ministers would visit the reserved constituencies to mark ‘Adivasi Divas’, and admitted that the BJP wanted to win those seats.

Why tribal population is crucial

Constituting nearly 15 per cent of the population, tribal communities play a crucial role in state politics. There are 48 other constituencies where the tribal population holds sway.

Also Read | Ahead of Gujarat polls, Kejriwal promises sops for tribals

While the Congress remains strong in tribal-dominated constituencies despite not being in power for over three decades, the BJP now faces a challenge from the aggressive poll campaign of the Aam Aadmi Party and its promises of 300 units of free electricity, better schools and unemployment allowances. The frequent Gujarat visits by the party’s national convener Arvind Kejriwal are said to have worried both BJP and Congress.

In their speeches at the Dahod event, the chief minister and the tribal minister reminded those assembled about how their party was pivotal in the development of tribal localities, and that the country’s current president Droupadi Murmu was a member of the tribal community. The chief minister also said that the state budget for tribal development increased from Rs 100 crore to over Rs 2,500 crore from 2001 to 2022.

Kejriwal in Gujarat again

Kejriwal, who is also the Delhi chief minister, will visit Ahmedabad on Wednesday to address a town hall, his party officials announced. They said that Kejriwal is likely to announce another “guarantee”, this time, possibly, for women. In his previous visits, he went to Surat, Gir Somnath, Jamnagar and Chhota Udepur, where he promised free electricity, unemployment allowances, jobs and better schools.