New Delhi: As poll managers of the Bharatiya Janata Party are chalking out strategies for the 2019 general elections, the party faces a persistent threat of being deserted by traders across the country. The BJP is wary of the trading community’s displeasure with the Narendra Modi government in the wake of demonetisation and the implementation of the Goods and Services Tax (GST), in quick succession. While the BJP has tried to allay traders’ concerns following its victory in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections after demonetisation, and the Gujarat Assembly elections post GST, a section within the party feels that its failure to woo small traders might force this vote bank to drift to the Opposition camp.
Traders claim that the market, starved of liquidity, has remained sluggish since demonetisation, causing huge losses and the government has not offered them any relief. Traders are considered a traditional vote bank of the BJP.
In the national capital in particular, traders have been left fuming with the ongoing sealing drive. The just-started Chandni Chowk Redevelopment Plan has added to the seething anger of small traders, who are opposing the move citing losses. In Delhi, traders or the Baniya community comprise nearly 10% of the total votes and are considered loyal to the BJP.
However, to upset the BJP’s applecart and to woo the community, the Aam Aadmi Party nominated two leaders from the Baniya community, namely Sushil Gupta and N.D. Gupta, to the Rajya Sabha. At the same time, the AAP has also been blaming the BJP-led Central government for the sealing drive.
This, according to sources, has prompted the Baniya lobby in the BJP to seek better representation for the community in the coming general elections. BJP’s Baniya lobby, which was feeling sidelined in Delhi after the rise of actor-turned-politician Manoj Tiwari, a Purvanchali, is demanding that at least two candidates from this community be fielded in the Lok Sabha elections to counter AAP, as well as woo the traders.
At present, BJP has just one MP from the Baniya/Vaishya community—Dr Harsh Vardhan from the Chandni Chowk constituency. However, sources in BJP said many prominent leaders, including Union Minister and Rajya Sabha member Vijay Goel and Leader of Opposition in the Delhi Assembly, Vijender Gupta, are eyeing Lok Sabha tickets from the Chandni Chowk or New Delhi parliamentary seats. Notably, these two constituencies are largely dominated by the trading community.
The New Delhi seat is currently held by Meenakshi Lekhi, a Punjabi face. According to sources, the demand for greater representation for the Baniya lobby is also aimed at countering the growing dominance of Purvanchalis in the state unit. A senior BJP leader said that the party has already given due prominence to the Purvanchalis by fielding Manoj Tiwari for the Lok Sabha from North East Delhi, which he won emphatically in 2014, and later by appointing him as the president of Delhi unit of BJP. “It is high time the party did the needful to prevent the Baniya vote bank from going to the Opposition parties,” he said.
In Delhi, a large section of the traders is anguished over GST, which came into effect on 1 July last year. Apart from its complex mechanism to file returns, and several slabs of taxes, traders are angry because GST has now criminalised economic offences. Also, they have to depend on chartered accountants to file their returns, either because they lack the requisite skills or are pressed for time as GST.