For driving home the message to its voters, the specially-designed ‘NRI Campaign Bus’ will traverse on the Punjab and Haryana roads cutting through the length and breadth of the two neighbouring states ahead the crucial Lok Sabha elections.
The bus, carrying hundreds of NRIs from the different countries including USA, UK, Canada, Germany, Switzerland, among others, would tour across the states making the electorate aware of Congress party’s vision and poll manifesto while making a vote appeal for the party candidates.
Elections for the 10 Lok Sabha seats of Haryana will be held on May 12, while for 13 seats of Punjab, polling will be on May 19.
During the previous general elections, the NRIs rallied behind the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) by supporting through social media, poll funding and campaigning, leading to the emergence of nascent political party in Punjab by bagging four out of 13 total seats stunning the state’s traditional political parties — Congress, and SAD-BJP combine.
This time, besides AAP, six different political outfits are jointly contesting the elections under the banner of Punjab Democratic Alliance (PDA), which is also reportedly receiving a major NRI support.
Its candidate, Punjab Ekta Party’s Bibi Paramjit Kaur Khalra — the widow of human rights activist Jaswant Singh Khalra — is receiving massive NRI support.
Besides lending a helping hand in the state’s election campaigning, either from abroad or by flocking here, the NRIs have been seen making lavish donations to the much-needed poll funds.
It is estimated that around 11 million NRIs are living in various countries across the world, most of whom are from Punjab. The Doaba belt, comprising Jalandhar, Hoshiarpur, Kapurthala and Nawanshahr districts, had seen maximum immigration to arid zones from Punjab.
Notably, in the US alone, there are approximately seven lakh Punjabis, of whom nearly 2.5 lakh hold Indian passports and are eligible to vote in the Punjab elections.
Various leaders, in fray, are using radio talk shows to connect to the Punjabi diaspora, and making a vote appeal, on popular Punjabi radio channels abroad.
“NRIs hold a major influence among the state voters, especially in the rural areas. Every election, they come and work for the party, but this time, party’s overseas wing has decided to make it a planned thing, and make the best use of their support back home,” a seior Congress leader told The Pioneer.
The leader said that the ‘NRI campaign bus’ was launched by the Overseas Congress chairman and technocrat Sam Pitroda from the AICC headquarters in New Delhi on Wednesday, and it would mainly be touring Punjab and Haryana.
“These two states have a substantial number of NRIs, and they hold the power to sway the voters here...they will be touring the two states, largely the rural areas, to make the voters aware of the party’s promises in the manifesto, especially the Nyay scheme,” added the leader.
With Haryana going to election a week before Punjab, the bus would first tour Haryana, and then Punjab areas.
A similar bus had earlier toured Gujarat too, while a team of NRIs had also campaigned for the party in the elections held in southern states.
More than 100 NRIs travelling on the campaign bus are from countries such as the US, Canada, Australia, the UK, Germany, Switzerland, and New Zealand. Earlier, about 1,000 NRIs had worked on the Congress campaign in Kerala and Karnataka.