BJP plans to woo urban poor with Garib Rath Yatra

Mumbai: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has decided to reach out to the poor in every ward of Mumbai through its ‘Garib Rath’ Yatra. The yatra will inform slum dwellers about the government’s initiatives for their welfare. Mumbai BJP chief Ashish Shelar will start the rally from Kalachowki on Sunday. The BJP is trying to reach out to urban poor and lower middle class families after the city Congress started focusing on this segment with its ‘Sankalpa Sabha’, which is aimed at creating awareness about the government’s ‘anti-people’ policies.

According to BJP sources, the main plank for the Gairb Rath Yatra will be affordable housing. As Prime Minister Narendra Modi has assured affordable housing for all by 2022, the state government has taken a few decisions on those lines. All slum dwellers who have been in the city before 2011 will get homes, according to the decision of state government. Mumbai BJP will try to inform the people about this.

There will be 12 corner meetings in Mumbai from Sunday and almost six different sets of raths (cars) will traverse the 227 wards of the city. The five-day long yatra is aiming to reach out to 25,000 people directly. There will be big rally on February 16 in Bhandup.

Political observers believe that with this rally, BJP is trying to give a suitable reply to the Congress’s Sankalpa Sabha. The Mumbai Congress had planned a two-month long programme of Sankalpa Sabha and its chief Sanjay Nirupam is reaching every corner of the city.

After loosing the upper middle class and a large part of the middle class to the BJP in previous elections, the Congress is now trying to focus on the lower middle class and the urban poor.