BJP plans dharamyudh in UP to take on SP and Maya

New Delhi: The BJP on Friday called for a “dharamyudh” to be fought in Uttar Pradesh, the state that will virtually decide the 2019 winner for the Delhi throne. As the Opposition, particularly the SP and BSP, have joined hands to target the BJP in the state, UP power minister and emerging “young turk” Shrikant Sharma said the only way to “smash through the caste cauldron is to step up development work and carry on aggressively with good governance”.

Speaking to this newspaper, Mr Sharma gave a clear indication that the party’s main plank in UP would be to highlight the fight between “honesty and evil”. He said: “We have begun a crusade for honesty.”

Claiming that the BJP had never played the religion card for votebank politics, Mr Sharma made it clear his party believes in “aastha (faith)”, and said that for millions “Ram Mandir and Lord Ram is a matter of faith”.

At a time when some saffron hawks like Uma Bharti have threatened that the Ram Mandir construction will begin “at the earliest”, Mr Sharma made it clear that the issue had to be settled “either through the judiciary or by consultations among stakeholders”.

Reiterating the party’s stand that attacks on dalits or anyone else “will not be tolerated” and “the law will take its own course”, Mr Sharma took aim at the Congress, saying: “Even after 70 years of Independence we talk of dalits, backwards and upper castes. Who is responsible for this? We believe in a casteless society and are working towards it.”

On the issue of the leak of the Congress’ test papers to select spokespersons, Mr Sharma quipped: “Akal ho toh nakal ki zaroorat nahi padti” (If you have brains, you don’t have to cheat). Taking a dig at Congress president Rahul Gandhi, Mr Sharma said: “Their party workers are merely following the leader.”

Mr Sharma, who as state power minister had earlier said that he would use the National Security Act and Goonda Act to check power theft, made it clear on Friday that “nobody of any political hue will be spared if found indulging in power theft”. Besides announcing awards for informers and setting up police stations to prevent large-scale power theft in the state, Mr Sharma said he was against increasing power tariffs, but wanted to make the existing system better. He said the UP government was trying to make the NCR region, including Noida, a “tripping-free zone” by August 15.

Mr Sharma, well aware that the main 2019 battle would be fought in rural UP, said the governments both at the state and at the Centre were pushing hard for the “empowerment of the poor and the farmers”.