As part of his party’s ‘Vistarak’ initiative, BJP national president Amit Shah met tribals in Chhota Udepur district in the poll-bound Gujarat on Wednesday and had food at one of the tribal families.
As part of the ‘Vistarak’ programme, each party worker will reach out to as many voters as possible in person. Gujarat BJP president Jitu Vaghani and State BJP in-charge Bhupendra Yadav joined their top leader’s strategic visit as part of his 110-day countrywide tour.
At noon, Shah’s convoy stopped at Devaliya village where they had typical Gujarati tribal lunch at Popatbhai Rathwa’s house. Shah spoke to women and children in the village on different issues. After having lunch, he went to a nearby town Bodeli where he interacted with religious leaders and informed them about various pro-people schemes of Modi Government.
Addressing the newly-inducted booth workers in the village, Shah said that while Gujarat remains a strong fortress for the BJP, there was a need to further strengthen its presence. He also praised Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s leadership and said that as a Chief Minister he had helped win around 120 seats, with him as PM, the party can look to capture at least 150 of the 182 Assembly seats in the State.
Interestingly, five of the six taluka panchayats as well as district panchayat of Chhota Udepur are ruled by Opposition Congress. In the last Parliamentary polls, when BJP won all the 26 lok Sabha seats from Gujarat, it was trailing Congress in Chhota Udepur. Even the local legislator from the district comes from Congress. With BJP facing trouble from several other communities, with socially, politically and economically powerful Patidaars as well as Dalits, who rose after public flogging of Dalit youths by self-styled cow protection group at Una in Saurashtra, BJP appears to be focusing on tribals to off-set any potential electoral losses.
The BJP chief, who is on a three-day visit to the State, is expected to continue his booth-level programmes in the State and would visit another tribal district of Sabarkantha.