BJP plans bonfire night in UP to reach out to rural voters

Lucknow: The BJP is planning to set up bonfires in all 75 districts of Uttar Pradesh on January 13 to interact with people in the rural areas.

The programme will be known as “Maati-Tilak Sankalp” and will be held on the occasion of Lohri and on the eve of Makar Sankranti.

According to the programme, around 5,000 farmers from all villages in the district will gather at the designated spot. They will bring a handful of earth from their fields which will be mixed at the spot.

The farmers will be informed of the steps taken by the Modi government for their benefit and they will also be told how the state government plugged the schemes for political reasons.

“We will also play the speeches of PM Narendra Modi and, if possible, show them short films on laptops. The meetings will take place around the bonfires which will make it a celebration of sorts. Farmers will then take a ‘sankalp (pledge)’ to vote for the BJP,” said Sudhir Singh Siddhu, state vice-president of the BJP Kisan Morcha.

The party is already running a programme called “Alav (bonfire) pe Charcha” in which party workers will reach out to villages and sit with the local people around bonfires and discuss political issues with them.

“Bonfires in villages are a routine affair in the winter months and we go to different villages and interact with the local people without any apparent political motive,” said a party worker.

The BJP is determined to make inroads into the rural interiors in order to neutralise the impact of demonetisation which could cause depletion in their votes in urban areas.

“Small farmers in the rural areas have been impacted by demonetisation and we are focusing on them. In urban areas, people have faced inconveniences and we are making up by getting additional support from the rural areas,” admitted a party functionary.

The BJP in UP has always been an urban-centric party but in 2014, the Modi wave unleashed in the rural areas too and this has made the party establish connect with rural voters too.

There are 299 Assembly seats that are categorised as being rural and 104 in the urban areas.