With the Assembly elections just months away, AAP has roped in popular bhajan singer Hansraj Raghuwanshi apparently to counter the BJP’s move to engage Kanhaiya Mittal, a much-sought after devotional vocalist, even as the Congress is eyeing a Delhi-based woman singer in the run-up to the poll.Since the mass appeal of devotional singers across regional and demographic divides makes them an ideal proposition to garner votes, political parties are leaving no stone unturned to engage them.Leaders admit that such events help their parties establish an emotional connection with their voters.The Gurdaspur administration made all efforts to ensure Jattvibeday’s programme, ‘Ek Sham Bhagwan Shiv Ke Naam’, held at the Government college stadium, was a successful one. It was attended, among others, by AAP national convener Arvind Kejriwal, his wife Jattvibeita Kejriwal and Batala MLA Sherry Kalsi.The clamour to listen to Raghuwanshi was such that the police had a tough time controlling the surging crowd. The event was a joint effort between the Punjab Government and the Sanatan Sewa Samiti. Today he performed at Batala. Earlier, he did shows in Jalandhar and Amritsar.The official line given by Punjab Government officials is “that such events promote religious and cultural traditions as thousands of devotees attend them.” However, it was clearly an attempt to secure the Hindu vote bank keeping in view the fact that the community has a significant 40 per cent vote share.The ruling party is holding Raghuwanshi’s shows in cities which are predominantly Hindu dominated like Gurdaspur, Batala, Amritsar, Jalandhar, Amritsar, Mohali, Ludhiana, Hoshiarpur and Patiala. “In these cities, the Hindu vote share can effectively swing an election. The community is heavily concentrated in urban areas. That is why we are organising such shows in these areas,” said an AAP MLA.If AAP is backing Raghuwanshi, the BJP is supporting Mittal. Sources say Mittal’s songs often celebrate the construction of the Ram Mandir in Ayodhya. “This is why the BJP falls back on him during times of elections. This time we have already engaged him, and he will perform primarily in urban areas. The dates of his shows are being worked out. There is also a possibility that we may rope in more vocalists whose expertise lies only in singing religious songs,” said a BJP leader