BJP touts Centre’s schemes to improve reach among tribal voters in Gujarat

BJP is reaching out to tribals in a big way ahead of Assembly polls in Gujarat, where it did not perform so well in the 2017 Assembly polls.

The state has a 15% tribal population, and 27 constituencies out of 182 are reserved for STs there. Congress had won 15 of them while the BJP had to contend with just nine. Another party active in the region was Bhil tribe leader Chhotubhai Vasava-led Bharatiya Tribal Party, which had then won two seats. Vasava’s party has now been exploring a tie-up with Arvind Kejriwal’s AAP.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be visiting the tribal-dominated Dahod on April 21.

Welfare schemes

Political analyst Rasheed Kidwai says, “BJP has made a sustained bid to reach out to tribals through the RSS-backed Vanvasi Kalyan Kendra and its tribal welfare schemes, including the Van Bandhu Kalyan Yojana in other states, but tribals in Gujarat have in the past backed parties with socialist ideologies, and Congress is now a strong force in the tribal pockets. BTP-AAP alliance can, in fact, pose problems more for Congress than for the BJP as the tribal regions with saffron reach out could stick with the BJP.”

On Friday addressing a press conference in party headquarters, the BJP reeled out welfare measures taken by the central government for the upliftment of the community when the party has been observing ‘Samajik Nyay Pakhwada’ (social justice fortnight) to mark the party’s foundation day on April 6.

Party spokesperson Gaurav Bhatia claimed that while the allocation for education among SC and ST members that a sum of over Rs 1,100 crore has now gone up to Rs 6,000 crore while more than 36,000 villages with ST majority are being developed as ideal villages with an expenditure of Rs 7,300 crore.

Giving their due

He made special mention of the Modi government highlighting the role of tribal freedom fighters saying NDA has given them the dues which they had not got during previous governments.

On Thursday when Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed an event inaugurating Pradhanmantri Sanghralaya in New Delhi, he reminisced “when one visits the Tribal Freedom Fighters’ Museum, one comes to know how our tribal brothers and sisters living in the far-flung forests had contributed in every field and had sacrificed everything during the freedom struggle.”

Last year, the BJP started the Van Bandhu Kalyan Yojana to reach out to tribals in Gujarat. The plan, further improvisation of its 2007 scheme, aimed at wooing back the tribals from the Congress.

In two states with significant tribal populations Jharkhand (26%) and Chattisgarh (32%), BJP is not in power and they are ruled by the JMM-Congress led alliance and Congress singlehandedly respectively.

While the BJP has been repeatedly highlighting how the Modi government has eight ministers from the tribal community, it has also been showcasing the work done by the Union government for the tribal community in the past eight years.

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