Shah on door-to-door poll campaign to woo tribals in Gujarat

Seeking the support of tribal population in poll-bound Gujarat, BJP chief Amit Shah on Wednesday held door to door campaign in this remote village of Chhota Udaipur district.

He also addressed a booth-level party workers meeting and had lunch with a tribal family as part of Gujarat BJP's 'Vistarak' initiative, which aims at establishing direct contact with people ahead of the state Assembly polls later this year.

Shah along with Gujarat BJP in-charge Bhupendra Yadav and state party leaders went from door to door seeking votes for the saffron party in this village in central Gujarat.

The eastern Gujarat tribal belt, despite serious efforts of BJP, is dominated by Congress, which had in 2012 elections managed to win 16 to 17 seats out of the 28 assembly segments. With the BJP setting the target of winning 150 seats out of the total 182, in the home state of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, which they consider as a prestige battle, garnering maximum seats in the tribal belt is crucial for the saffron player.

Shah and his team campaigned in Devaliya village under Chhota Udaipur constituency, which has been held by eight time Congress MLA Mohansinh Rathwa.

In a brief address to the newly-inducted booth-level party workers from Devaliya village, Shah said while Gujarat remains the party's strong fortress, they have to make it further strong and ensure that it continues to remain strong.

"We have decided to take BJP's ideology and strengthen its organisation at village level as part of 'vistarak' (outreach) programme.

"In Gujarat alone, a total 48,000 party workers will go door to door to explain party's programmes, our government's work at central and state level...No party would have undertaken such an exercise. And right here, you can see party workers from booth level right up to the national level," Shah said.

"Our party values organisation and workers, who are the soul of the party. I had been to Lakshwadeep and stayed there for three days, visiting 15 booths where we inducted 40 new members. We are not strong there as we got only 3,200 votes in (2014) Lok Sabha elections," he said.