Lok Sabha polls 2014: Parties vie for Poorvanchali vote

NEW DELHI: Political parties have tried to woo Delhi's 40 lakh Poorvanchalis through various sops over the years that include elaborate celebration of Chhat Puja and declaring it a gazetted holiday, low cost housing and health insurance. This poll season is no different.

The Aam Aadmi Party has distributed pamphlets across the city that show a picture of BJP's prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi sitting with MNS chief Raj Thackeray and a second picture showing him hugging Shiv Sena' s Uddhav Thackeray. Next to them are two more photographs showing MNS and Shiv Sena party workers beating up migrants from Uttar Pradesh and Bihar in Mumbai, taken a few years earlier. "Can Modiji protect people from UP and Bihar if he joins hands with MNS and Shiv Sena?" the pamphlet says in Hindi.

Party sources say that Arvind Kejriwal had raised this issue during his rally in Varanasi and party volunteers felt that the message had resonated with several people and should be conveyed to everyone.

The BJP, on the other hand, paid a heavy price in the recent assembly elections for denying tickets to Poorvanchali leaders. In West Delhi Lok Sabha constituency, it lost some of its strongholds. This time, BJP is doing everything possible to woo the Poorvanchali votebank. It has fielded Bhojpuri actor Manoj Tiwari from North East Delhi.

Of the six Poorvanchali sitting Delhi MLAs, five are from AAP while one, Anil Jha, is from BJP. The party has also fielded two Poorvanchalis for the Lok Sabha elections—Ashutosh from Chandni Chowk and Anand Kumar from North East Delhi.

Sitting MP from west Delhi, Congress' Mahabal Mishra is its only Poorvanchali face in this election. "All resettlement colonies with a high number of Poorvanchali residents will vote for Congress on the development plank," Mishra said.