Poorvanchal people a hot property in Delhi polls

Amitabh Shukla

New Delhi, March 1

People hailing from Poorvanchal (Bihar and eastern Uttar Pradesh) have become a hot property in the political arithmetic of the Capital. The Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) on Thursday roped in the services of film star turned politician Shatrughan Sinha to woo the voters and termed him as the party’s “star campaigner”.

“People from Poorvanchal play an important role in the city’s life. Time has come for them to play a political role by dislodging the Congress from the civic body this year and the state Assembly next year,” Sinha said. The former Union Minister in the NDA regime said people from the east will rewrite the electoral history of Delhi in the forthcoming elections.

Sinha later addressed a convention of the Poorvanchal cell of the BJP and urged the workers to hand a crushing defeat to the ruling Congress.

The film-star was roped in after former BJP MP Lal Bihari Tiwari resigned and then took back his resignation from the party, threatening the base of the BJP in the important segment. Moreover, another Poorvanchal organisation has merged with the Bhartiya Jan Shakti of former chief minister Madan Lal Khurana giving nightmares to the BJP. Given the importance of the people of Poorvanchal in the changing demographic profile of the city, Khurana has already announced that the party will give tickets to over 50 people from east in the elections.

Delhi BJP president Harsh Vardhan said: “This section is important for us and with us”. Asked whether Khurana factor would impact the elections, he refused to comment.

The Congress too has promised as many seats as possible to people from Poorvanchal. However, it has not decided on the numbers. “We are assessing the political situation and who would be given ticket from which area,” said DPCC president Ram Babu Sharma.

The leaders of both Congress and BJP point out that people from Bihar and eastern UP are in a position to affect the poll outcome in at least 50 of the 272 municipal wards. “Their numbers are growing and now they have become a political force to reckon with. Any party can neglect it only at its peril," said Poorvanchal leader Ramesh Jha. (2007)