With the Assembly elections in Gujarat approaching, not only the people of the state but also the non-resident Indians (NRIs) especially Gujaratis are equally excited to choose and vote for their favourite leader and party and 25,000 of them are reaching Gujarat from across the world to campaign for Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
Digant Sompura, Convenor of the Foreign contact department told ANI, "Whenever elections are to be held in India, people from across the World have their eyes on it. Especially when the elections are in Gujarat, the excitement and curiosity increase due to PM Modi's Gujarat connection."
This time with the entry of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in Gujarat and the triangular fight, people are all the more curious about the Gujarat elections.
Gujaratis across the world have a special connection with their home state and they do regularly give donations in their villages for the construction of schools, libraries and other development works and hence they have earned respect and a special position amongst their fellow villagers. Using this, the non-resident Gujaratis will campaign in the state and ask their villagers to vote in maximum numbers for the BJP.
Sompura added, "There are about 20 lakh Indians residing in USA, out of which about 11-12 lac are Gujaratis. All these Gujaratis in the USA have a special connection with their home state and hence more and more people are trying to come to the state and will be campaigning for BJP. As per an estimate, the number of NRIs coming here for campaigning will be 25,000."
Dr Vasudev Patel, National Organisation Secretary of BJP in the USA said, "We have the long-sightedness of PM Narendra Modi who knows what is the power and support of NRI's. 32 NRI's have already landed here in Gujarat from New Zealand, Australia and other parts and more people are set to land in the coming days from Fiji, Canada, USA and other countries."
NRIs cannot vote in India as they are now citizens of other countries but still, they think they owe something to their country and hence they visit here at their own expense, taking a break from their work and business, to campaign during elections.
"After Narendra Modi became the Prime Minister of the country, the development in the country is skyrocketing and hence we are here to tell the people in our villages to vote for BJP," added Patel.
About the campaigning strategy, Dr Vasudev said, "We follow two strategies for campaigning, one is the ground campaigning where the NRI's work on-ground, where they campaign in different villages and the other is campaigning online, which is done by people who could not make it to India, they campaign by making phone calls to their relatives, villagers, neighbours and tell them why they should vote for BJP. They also make online videos on it and share on the social media platforms."
As of now, registration of about 90 people have been received who are coming to India, especially for campaigning and many come here without registering. Moreover, there are about 1000 people who have not given up their Indian citizenship, they will be coming to India, especially to vote.
( With inputs from ANI )
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