Gujarat assembly elections: BJP brings in netas to woo migrants

VAPI: After giving a rousing reception to chief minister Narendra Modi in Patna recently, BJP workers from Bihar are now working overtime to convince the migrants from their states settled in industrialized areas of south Gujarat to vote for the saffron party.

Several party workers and their leaders from Bihar as well as Maharashtra are touring villages down south to woo the migrants ahead of assembly polls.

Harping on development plank, the leaders are telling migrants how Gujarat is far better to live given the poor conditions in their native states. The leaders are reaching out to as many booths as possible.

"People from other states working in Gujarat are much happier. We have to show the migrants the benefits of living here," said Arun Singh Prasad, secretary of BJP in Sitamarhi district of Bihar. Prasad has been given the responsibility of Umbergaon assembly seat.

"The development in Gujarat is so visible. Just as you cross the border into Maharashtra, you are met with roads with potholes and villages without electricity," said Jayprakash Thakur, a senior BJP leader from Mumbai. "I would like to be reborn in Gujarat," he went on to tell the migrants from Maharashtra in Valsad.

Ratnesh Singh,former secretary of BJP in Bihar,is camping with around 25 secondcadre party workers to campaign.

Addressing the members of 225 booth committees in Pardi constituency, Singh even sought to hardsell Modi's popularity in Bihar. "When Modi came to Bihar to pay tribute to late Kailashpati Mishra, a huge crowd spontaneously said in chorus that they want him as PM. It shows his popularity is more than Nitish Kumar's," Singh said.

A large number of BJP workers from Rajasthan are also expected to tour south Gujarat after Diwali to woo the migrants.