BJP leaders from down South are campaigning across Maninagar, the constituency of Chief Minister Narendra Modi, so that he doesn’t lose out on Tamil votes in the elections scheduled for December 16.

Tamil Nadu BJP vice-president and former Union Minister in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee led NDA government, Pon Radhakrishnan and KN Lakshmanan, Tamil Nadu BJP president, along with 12 other party workers from the state are camping here since the last one week to woo the Tamil voters for the party.

“This election is being watched by everyone across the country and we are here to ensure that the party doesn’t lose out on Tamil votes. Our team has people from almost all the districts of Tamil Nadu. We are just not going to Tamil speaking voters here as Tamils, but we are seeing to it that they get to talk to people from their own districts as well,” says Radhakrishnan.

Maninagar has a sizeable Tamil population, about 6,500, and the team is carrying on a door-to-door campaign for Modi and the party. “First we ask them about which part of Tamil Nadu they belong to. After learning about the specific district a family hails from, a worker from that particular district is asked to interact with the family. It becomes easier for people also to identify persons from their own district and they open up better,” says Radhakrishnan.

But then, this campaigning is not limited to Maninagar alone. The team has also visited other constituencies like Sabarmati, Ellisbridge, Asarwa and also gone beyond Ahmedabad. “What do you call that place? Yes, Himmatnagar. We have reached out to almost 1,500 Tamil voters across these areas,” says Lakshmanan.

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