BJP woos north Indians with Baati Chokha

A Baati Chokha event that the BJP’s city unit had organised in the city on Thursday is being viewed as a desperate attempt by the party to woo north Indian voters for the crucial Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) polls to be held early next year. The community had voted strongly in favour of the BJP in the previous Lok Sabha and Assembly elections.

The party held the event at Goregaon. Chief minister Devendra Fadnavis, apart from several prominent personalities from the north Indian community, were invited for it.

BJP spokesman Keshav Upadhye said that such events are organised to expand the base of the party. “The party wants to connect with people by holding events like Baati Chokha. We have organised such events earlier as well in order to spread the ideology of the party.”

It is clear, however, that with the help of events like Baati Chokha, the party wants to maintain the support of the north Indian community — which forms nearly 28 per cent of the city’s population — in the forthcoming BMC elections.

The BJP wants to upstage its alliance partner, the Shiv Sena, in the civic polls, which are barely four months away. The Sena-BJP alliance has for long ruled the BMC, the richest municipal corporation in the country, but the latter has always had to play the role of a junior partner.

The BJP’s unexpected success in the Vidhan Sabha elections in 2014, in which the party bagged 15 seats, thus relegating the Shiv Sena (14 seats) to the second position in the city, has buoyed it to aim higher. The party has vowed that the next mayor of Mumbai would be from the BJP.

According to party sources, Gujarati and Marwari voters have always supported the BJP. However, north Indians, who earlier favoured the Congress, also supported the BJP heavily in the last Lok Sabha and Vidhan Sabha polls.

Baati Chokha is a popular cuisine from north India.