BJP's tribal outreach key to Hindi heartland sweep

PM Modi set tone for election victory by announcing ₹24K cr for welfare mission of tribal groups in Jharkhand in Nov

On November 16, one day before all of Madhya Pradesh and 70 seats in Chhattisgarh were to vote, with Rajasthan to follow on November 25, Prime Minister Narendra Modi stood before a statue of Birsa Munda, and announced a ₹24000 crore welfare mission for 2.8 million particularly vulnerable tribal groups. He made the speech in Khunti in Jharkhand, but the politics was unmistakeable; the Prime Minister was reaching out to the tribal community across India, the poll bound states in particular. “Modi has made the marginalised his priority…social justice is a generic term. Modi is now looking at justice for tribals,” he said.

Less than a month later, in states like Chhattisgarh, it is clear the party’s tribal outreach has worked, and has aided the party’s sweep of the crucial Hindi heartland. In Chhattisgarh, there are 29 seats reserved for the scheduled tribes, of which on their way to 68 seats in a 90-member assembly in 2018, the Congress had won 25. On Sunday, this tally fell to 35, with the BJP winning 54 seats.