On his second visit in a week, Modi to woo two politically important communities in Solapur

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will dedicate 15,000 houses for workers from unorganised sectors during his visit to Solapur. He will also reach out to politically important communities and strengthen ties with economically weaker sections, including Muslims. The visit is seen as an attempt to benefit the BJP in the upcoming Lok Sabha and assembly elections.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will dedicate 15,000 houses built for workers from unorganised sectors among a series of programmes scheduled during his one-day visit to Solapur on Friday, his second trip to the state in a week.

New Delhi, Jan 18 (ANI): Prime Minister Narendra Modi interacts with the beneficiaries of the Viksit Bharat Sankalp Yatra, via video conference, in New Delhi on Thursday. (ANI Photo) (ANI)

With the Lok Sabha elections barely a couple of months away, Modi will also reach out to two communities, Padmashali and Lingayat, who are politically important in the region where the Sharad Pawar-led NCP and Congress are two other major players.

Beneficiaries of the houses in ‘RAY Nagar Housing Society’ at Kumbhari comprise handloom and powerloom workers, street vendors, beedi workers, drivers and rag pickers among others. Modi will also try to strengthen his party’s ties with the economically weaker sections, especially Muslims, since one third of beneficiaries of the project belong to the community.

At a public event for the housing project’s inauguration, the PM will also dedicate more than 90,000 houses completed under PMAY-Urban, lay the foundation stone for eight AMRUT (Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation) projects worth around ₹2,000 crore, and begin distribution of first and second instalments of PM-SVANIDHI to 10,000 beneficiaries.

The community has been supporting BJP for the last few decades. In fact, BJP’s first Lok Sabha MP from western Maharashtra was from Solapur and he belonged to Padmashali community. Lingaraj Valayal won the elections in 1996.

However, the current BJP MP, Jaysiddheshwar Shivacharya Mahaswami, is a nonperformer and he is also caught in a controversy over the validity of his caste certificate he produced during 2019 election. Even the party’s MP during 2014-2019, Sharad Bansode, was a nonperformer too and BJP denied him ticket in 2019. So, the party is looking for a better candidate to change its image in Solapur LS constituency which is reserved for the scheduled caste.

Besides LS elections, BJP expects the function will benefit the party in the assembly polls too as it eyes Solapur City Central assembly constituency currently represented by Congress MLA Pranitee Shinde.

Lingayat, another politically significant community, has invited the PM to visit their shrine. But till Thursday evening, Dharmaraj Kadadi, chairperson of Siddheshwar Devasthan Committee, had not received confirmation about Modi’s visit to Siddheshwar temple. The community, which has a population of around 3.25 lakh, plays a crucial role in Solapur, Dharashiv and Latur Lok Sabha constituencies and in more than 12 assembly seats such as Solapur City North, South Solapur, Akkalkot, Barshi, Umaraga, Latur, Ausa, Udgir, and Ahmedpur.

Sanjeev Pimparkar, a senior journalist from Solapur, said Modi will hit many targets with this one visit.

“Even after the two consecutive victories in Solapur LS constituency in 2014 and 2019, BJP is still struggling to find a good candidate for this seat. Modi’s visit will be an attempt to strengthen ties with voters from the Telugu-speaking community. Through this function, Modi will also rebuild his image as a PM who executes welfare schemes for economically weaker sections irrespective of his political ideology and this may help BJP in the coming elections,” Pimparkar said.

On January 12, Modi was in Mumbai and Nashik when he inaugurated India’s longest sea bridge, Mumbai Trans Harbour Link, and a few infrastructure projects.