UP polls 2017: BJP upbeat with others focusing on Muslims
The Muslim vote bank also seems to have split, which, the BJP claims, has been to its benefit.
New Delhi: The BJP is upbeat post the third phase of polling in Uttar Pradesh. Saffron poll managers say that the feud in the Samajwadi Party’s first family could dent the ruling party’s poll prospects in the region, which is also known as the “Yadav belt”.
BJP poll strategists are also of the view that with both the Mayawati-led BSP and the SP-Congress alliance going on a minority overdrive, the non-Yadav OBCs and the upper castes have rallied around the saffron party. And the much talked about reverse consolidation in favour of the BJP is now rapidly taking place, they say. The Muslim vote bank also seems to have split, which, the BJP claims, has been to its benefit.
During the last Assembly elections, the SP had bagged 55 of the total 69 Assembly constituencies that went to polls on Sunday. The BJP, which had won just five seats in this region in the 2012 Assembly elections, is confident of winning more than 20 seats this time. Ms Mayawati’s BSP had won six and two seats were won by the Congress in the last Assembly elections from here. The 69 seats are spread over 12 districts. Some of the key districts that went to polls in the third phase were Farrukhabad, Hardoi, Kannauj, Mainpuri, Etawah, Kanpur, Lucknow, Unnao, Sitapur and Barabanki.
“UP main SP ke kaam ke bolne se pehle, gundagardi ne zyada bol diya. Netaji bole the ‘ladke, ladke hain… galti ho jati hai.’ Ab mahilaayen uska jawad dengi (grim law and order situation in the state under the SP rule had had more impact than its work... Mulayam Singh Yadav had opposed capital punishment for rape saying ‘boys will be boys,’ now women will reply to his remarks and to law and order situation in the state),” said BJP’s state general secretary, Ashok Katariya.
The SP’s main slogan for the UP elections is “Kaam bolta hai.” And the BJP has been highlighting the deteriorating law and order situation in the state and promising “parivartan” through development and good governance.
BJP poll managers claim that even in Mulayam Singh’s Yadav home turf, Etawah, the going was tough for many SP candidates. Sidelined by his nephew and chief minister Akhilesh Yadav, Shivpal Yadav contested from the Jaswant Nagar seat. There are reports that ticket distribution and Shivpal’s supporters, who are miffed with the new SP supremo, played spoilsport for the ruling party in the Yadav belt and in other regions as well.
Furthermore, the BJP has gone into a high-octane campaign for the remaining four phases of polling. Strategists say that Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s “popularity” remains intact, and that would be the “game changer” in the coming phases of polling.
In the next four phases, Bundelkhand and Poorvanchal will go to polls, including Mr Modi’s own parliamentary constituency, Varanasi. The BJP hopes that if the current trend of reverse consolidation continues, it would do better than expected in the coming phases.