JOIN USCoronavirus Lockdown: Politics heats up over migrants
Full-blown politics has erupted on the issue of migrants, a majority belonging to states like Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, West Bengal, Jharkhand and Odisha.
The politics is palpable in states which will ace polls before the next general elections in 2024. Uttar Pradesh, which has 80 Lok Sabha will go to polls in 2022, West Bengal with 42 Lok Sabha seats is going to polls in 2021 and Bihar with 40 Lok Sabha seats will see polls in October this year.
The BJP and the Congress were found racing against each other over the issue, in Uttar Pradesh. While Yogi Adityanath government set up a migrant commission and mulled seeking permissions from other states that need labour, Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi announced running of special buses to ferry migrants.
An apparently irked Mayawati, whose vote base constitutes of Dalits forming a major chunk of the migrant population, accused both the parties of engaging in politics. She said that the BSP was born to take up the issue of the deprived and the Dalits caused by the policies of the Congress, which are now being carried forward by the BJP.
Recently, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced plans to address the problems of joblessness and poverty in the eastern states. He said the agony, pain and ordeal of the underprivileged labourers and workers cannot be expressed in words and indicated that plans are on the anvil for the holistic development of eastern India.
According to the 2011 census, India has 45.36 crore internal migrants, most moving in search of jobs from the Hindi heartland and eastern states. Most migrants go back to their state of origin to cast votes.
Realising this, in last West Bengal assembly polls, political parties had arranged special trains from cities like Delhi to bring them back to vote. Verbal attacks by ministers like Amit Shah and Piyush Goyal on Mamata Banerjee over “not showing interest” in running Shramik Special trains also fit into the pattern.
Bihar has also seen a big fight on migrant issues. The voters from Eastern UP and adjoining Bihar have played a key role in forming governments in Delhi. Not surprisingly AAP was quick to announce it would pay the train fare of migrants going back to Bihar, which irked JDU leadership that sprang into damage control mode.