The duel for the diaspora: Vying for NRI support

As elections inch closer, the BJP and the Congress are battling it out among several votebanks. How are the parties building up their arsenals abroad?

New Delhi: Elections are about to unfold in India, but in the San Francisco Bay Area next Sunday, as many as 400 supporters of the Bharatiya Janata Party are set to carry out a car rally to hammer home the party’s war cry, ‘Ab ki baar, 400 paar’ (this time, let’s cross 400 seats). Organised by the Overseas Friends of BJP’s US unit, the car rally is one among a line of weekend events that the party has lined up to mobilise support among overseas Indians for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections in India. 

The community celebrated Mahashivratri earlier this month, Holi this weekend and the car rally will take place next weekend. Weekend community meetings are a platform that the unit is utilising to urge NRIs to garner support for the BJP, and also vote for the party if they are in a position to. In these meetings, community leaders of ethnic groups are called and all of them are urged to vote for Modi, says Adapa Prasad, president of the Overseas Friends of BJP-USA. 

“In these community outreach programmes, we list the achievements of the Modi government,” Prasad says. Diaspora supporters from Telangana, Tamil Nadu, Punjab, Maharashtra, Assam etc have been attending these programmes.

The unit has ‘chai pe charcha’ events planned, as well as ‘callathons’, where Indian-American volunteers will call up their relatives and urge them to vote for the BJP. In the US alone, Prasad says, there are 20 chapters of the OF-BJP functioning among the 4.5 to 5 million Indian-Americans. And in the last few years, he says, there is a changing dynamic. 

Earlier, Gujaratis accounted for about 36% of diaspora Indians and the Telugu-speaking population for 25%. Today, Telugu population accounts for 27%, Gujaratis for 25% and Punjabis for 15%. “In contrast to the perception back home, BJP enjoys the popularity of Telugu communities here. We also have a Sikh Cell, and for the first time, three of the 20 chapters are headed by Tamils,” Prasad says. 

Also vying for diaspora support is the Congress, which is pursuing a focused approach. The Indian Overseas Congress (IOC), the party’s wing that caters to the diaspora headed by technocrat Sam Pitroda, has designed programmes to enable Rahul to reach out to various sections of Indian society. It became a huge hit, especially after his successful Bharat Jodo Yatra from Kanyakumari to Kashmir.

Dr Arathi Krishna, AICC secretary and in-charge of Indian Overseas Congress, says she has asked the IOC units to provide them a list of people flying down to India during elections.

“We want these people to stay in their areas and campaign. We will also appoint coordinators in every state to streamline the work of IOC members,” says Krishna, who is also deputy chairman of the Karnataka government's NRI Forum.

Sandeep Vangala, general secretary of the group, says the IOC leadership is travelling to their respective states and working in respective constituencies.

"We are asking people who cannot travel during elections to talk to their family. We are asking them to increase voting by 500%," says Vangala.

"If you cannot go, then ensure that five from your family go and vote for Congress. We are concentrating on booths. There is a sort of booth management," Vangala says.

Vangala, who had campaigned during the recent Telangana Assembly elections, says they already have a network of people staying abroad during this election who would be working to influence people in their villages and towns. 

The IOC is also reaching out to party supporters abroad but has campaigned for local body elections while in India and has given training on talking points. “We are majorly focussing on the cadre who are outside the leadership system,” Vangala says.

The BJP, on the other hand, has sent in a bunch of senior leaders to pursue diaspora Indians. Ajay Jain Bhutoria, advisor to the Biden administration on matters related to Asia, and the Democratic Party’s deputy national finance chair, says that engagements with union ministers have been constant. 

Recent developments

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has had sustained success in popularity among overseas Indians. The Howdy Modi programme organised in 2019, where 50,000 Indians congregated in Houston, is yet to be bested. Bhutoria, one of the top donors of the Biden 2024 campaign, says that the majority of diaspora Indians prefer Modi. 

“The India-US relationship is at its peak now, and both countries are looking to keep China out of the Pacific. PM Modi’s historic visit to the White House last year are signs of a shift in India’s stature where India is emerging as a bigger global trade partner,” Bhutoria says, adding that many diaspora Indians support Modi for a third term.

New pathways

However, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has been making inroads in these pockets. After the Bharat Jodo Yatra, his interactions in the US, including his speech at the Javits Center in New York in September last year, have drawn sustained crowds. 

“Rahul’s visits provided an opportunity for people, especially Dalits, tribals and OBCs, to connect with him. They felt there was someone who was talking about them,” Vangala said, a point some feel would work to Congress’ advantage.

Intellectual resources

Vangala adds that the Congress no longer looks at NRIs as “money bags” but as intellectual wealth creators. “IOC leaders are already on the ground in various parts of India training booth-level workers in electioneering too,” he adds. 

Gurminder Randhawa of IOC, based in the United Kingdom, says farmers’ issues, unemployment, price rise, ethnic violence in Manipur and the wrestlers’ protest would find a mention in their campaign.

BJP vice president and Rajya Sabha MP Vinay Sahasrabuddhe says that apart from US and UK, PM Modi enjoys popularity in the UAE as well as Singapore.

“In Gujarat, for instance, there are a bunch of overseas Indians who make it a point to come to India, help in voter registration of NRIs and their relatives and also help the party in campaigning,” he says.  

Dr Krishna says people in the Gulf countries are more enthusiastic to cast their votes. 

A senior leader with the Indian Overseas Congress in Europe told DH that many people do not find the motivation to fly down to vote mainly due to financial constraints.

Cut-off box - Low voter turn out
While overseas departments in parties try to woo diaspora statistics show that the vote count from voters residing abroad is dismal. Those involved in diaspora politics point towards a lack of incentives for voters to make the journey. 
Among the NRIs only 99844 were registered as voters in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections and among them only a dismal one-fourth or 25606 flew down to India to exercise their franchise. This was a huge jump from eight votes out of 13039 overseas voters registered in 2014.
Of those who voted in 2019 a whopping 25534 were from Kerala. Of the remaining 72 who voted 16 were from Karnataka which had 411 registered overseas voters. In 2024 the EC says 118439 overseas voters are on the list but it is to be seen how many would vote.
One reason for low turn out is said to be because of unavailability of proxy voting or remote voting.