In Uttar Pradesh, where political pundits are favouring Mayawati’s Bahujan Samaj Party for the Assembly elections scheduled early next year, BJP poll strategists are considering unleashing party’s “nari shakti” to take on the BSP supremo.
Three BJP women leaders — Union ministers Smriti Irani, Uma Bharti and national general secretary Saroj Pandey — could lead the charge against Ms Mayawati to preempt a situation where the electoral battle is seen as “BJP men Vs Behanji”, which could benefit the BSP.
Though there is still time for formal campaigning to begin, the BJP’s poll strategists wants the saffron women brigade to prepare the ground before the poll bugle is sounded.
The saffron party is also finetuning its caste game in this politically crucial state where it registered a sweeping victory in the 2014 general elections. The list of leaders being prepared to lead the campaigning will also take into account the fact that dalits are around 20 per cent of UP’s population, a block loyal to BSP, and that OBCs constitute nearly half of the total population of the state.
Sources disclosed that Ms Irani, who recently took on the BSP supremo in Parliament, is one of the favourites among the saffron cadre for not only contesting from Rahul Gandhi’s bastion Amethi but also taking on the Congress top brass on numerous occasions.
Ms Pandey, former MP from Durg, Chhattisgarh, whose family hails from Chandauli in UP, is known for her organisational skills and mobilising the cadres. Currently incharge of Maharashtra, Ms Pandey is a Brahmin, which is the BJP’s core votebank.
Ms Bharti’s oratory skills are legendary and the fact that she is a Lodh is seen as an advantage for the saffron camp. Ms Bharti, a saffron sanyasin, is also acceptable to the “sadhu samaj” which play a crucial role in BJP’s poll campaign.
Speculation is rife that a Brahmin leader could be given a key task in Uttar Pradesh ahead of the Assembly elections by the BJP. The party had recently appointed an OBC, Keshav Prasad Maurya, keeping in mind the numerical value of the community in this state, which has the highest number of Assembly constituencies at 403.
