BJP on overdrive in western Uttar Pradesh

New Delhi: In the sugarcane belt of western Uttar Pradesh, the BJP is hardselling its “Samraidh kisan, Sashakt Bharat” (prosperous farmer, strong nation) slogan to highlight how initiatives taken by the Narendra Modi government for farmers and the agricultural community had made their lives better. Eight parliamentary constituencies in this part of the electorally crucial state will go to the polls in the first phase on April 11 and BJP’s managers are heavily banking on the NDA government’s sche-mes for this sector, inclu-ding the much-publicised Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi scheme to beat the caste calculation in the region,which seems to favour the SP-BSP-RLD combine. The farmers’ unrest was one of the major issues that kept troubling the BJP and the Modi government.

In the first phase, Sahar-anpur, Kairana, Muzaff-arnagar, Bijnor, Meerut, Baghpat, Ghaziabad and Gautam Buddh Nagar will go to the polls and Mr Modi’s first rally of the 2019 Lok Sabha campaign was in Meerut. Other than the sugarcane politics, the region is also known for its many communally sensitive areas. All these eight seats were won by the BJP in 2014, but the alliance of the regional satraps is looking more formidable to political pundits. The SP-BSP-RLD alliance has upset the BJP arithmetic. Other than the Opposition alliance, the BJP is also busy pacifying Jats, a dominant caste in the region, who seem to be miffed with the NDA over the non-payment of sugarcane and the State Advisory Price (SAP) for cane, which has not been increased for the last two years.

While the BJP leadership is busy strategising how to win votes in this region, it also made some new appointments to its “Kisan Morcha”, which many within the party also found unusual, especially its timing. The BJP made these appointments for UP, Madhya Pradesh, Haryana, Bihar and also in its morcha.