After receiving a severe drubbing in the LokSabha election the Congress is adopting various tactics to attract voters before the assembly election. Close on the heels of announcing reservation for Marathas and Muslims the party is now trying to lure the Gujarati community. Maharashtra Chief Minister PrithvirajChavan has announced that the Govt magazine LokRajya will be restarted in Gujarati language. The publication of the magazine was discontinued in the late 90’s after the formation of Sena-BJP government in the state. Gujarati voters are traditionally known to vote for the BJP hence Congress is trying to woo them. There is a sizeable number of Gujarati population in the city.
Krishna Hegde, Congress MLA from Vile Parle has urged the Chief Minister to restart the magazine. Hegde had met him three times to discuss about this issue.Hegde had metChavan20 days ago to demand for the revival of Gujarati edition of LokRajya magazine.
When AV askedKrishna Hegde whether the party has taken this decision with any eye on the assembly polls he denied and said, “No I don’t think it’s a ploy to woo the Gujarati voters as the decision has been taken in the public interest. Last time, when the publishing of the magazine was discontinued Gujarati readers became quite disappointed hence I hadrequested Chavan to restart the magazine. I am thankful to the CMfor taking this initiative.”
“Gujarati’s are considered as the dominant business community of the state. The Govt. advertisements, schemes, articles of cultural and public interests are published in LokRajya. This magazine will evoke good response from the Gujarati community” added Hegde.
In the recently concluded LokSabha polls, Gujarati’s had voted for the BJP-Sena alliance in large numbers which proved to be counterproductive for the Congress party.
PrithvirajChavan too is following the footsteps of Prime Minister NarendraModi by creating a twitter handle named CMO Maharashtra. Modi is an avid user of social networking sites and has been using the handle @PMOIndia to interact with the people. He posts information related to the work done by his party and the government policies.
CMO handler shall post about the important government decisions, newspaper cuttings related to the Chief Minister, editorials, important announcements and official programmes of the chief minister for the day.
