Purvanchali votes have become the centre of the latest battle between the Aam Aadmi Party and the Bharatiya Janata Party ahead of assembly polls in Delhi.
The row erupted after BJP president JP Nadda said during a discussion in Rajya Sabha earlier this week that the Constitution has provision for the deletion of people's names from electoral rolls. “Also, it has to be seen that if they (AAP) were in power for so long on the votes of Rohingya and Bangladeshis,” he said.
Responding to the allegation in the House, AAP MP Sanjay Singh accused NAdda of calling people from Purvanchal “who have been living in Delhi for 40-odd years and building Delhi with their sweat and blood” as Rohingya and Bangladeshis.
Nadda's statement soon snowballed into a controversy with AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal accusing the BJP president of calling the people of the Purvanchali community "Rohingyas and Bangladeshis", and "admitting" that their names were being deleted from voters' list in Delhi ahead of assembly polls.
“BJP national president JP Nadda has openly accepted in the Parliament that BJP workers are getting the names of people of Purvanchal, and illegal Bangladeshi immigrants and Rohingyas deleted [from voter list]. We condemn this; it is a conspiracy against the people of Purvanchal. On one hand, they are being compared with Rohingyas... How can people who have come to Delhi from UP and Bihar be compared with Rohingyas and Bangladeshis?" Kejriwal said.
Delhi BJP promptly hit back at AAP alleging its government in the national capital of taking decisions against the Purvanchali community.
"Purvanchalis have not forgotten Arvind Kejriwal's statement of September 30, 2019, that people from Biharis come to Delhi with a Rs 500-rupee ticket, get free treatment worth Rs 5 lakh and then leave," said Delhi BJP president Virendra Sachdeva said.
Why Do Purvanchali Votes Matter?
Purvanchal refers to the region in eastern Uttar Pradesh that shares a border with Bihar in the east and Nepal in the north. Around 17 districts of UP fall under this region, including Azamgarh, Ballia, Basti, Chandauli, Deoria, Ghazipur, Gorakhpur, Jaunpur, Kushinagar, Maharajganj, Mau, Mirzapur, Sant Kabir Nagar, Sant Ravidas Nagar, Siddharth Nagar, Sonbhadra and Varanasi.
Natives of the region migrate to the national capital in large numbers in search of employment and other sources of income. While districts of UP constitute the Purvanchal region, the term is generally used to refer to people from other adjoining parts of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar.
The Purvanchali voters exert a great influence in the politics of Delhi as they constitute about 46 lakhs or 30 per cent of the total 1.5 crore voters in the national capital.
The statistics imply that these voters have a direct impact on as many as 29 of the total 70 seats of the Delhi Legislative Assembly. Over the years, the Aam Aadmi Party has gained a significant foothold among the Purvanchali voter base, winning 24 of these 29 seats in the 2020 assembly polls.
The assembly elections in Delhi are scheduled to be held in February next year.