LUCKNOW: Western Uttar Pradesh is gearing up to vote in the first phase when eight crucial seats are up for grabs. April 11 is a week away and activity in the saffron camp is at its peak. The rattling silence in the opposition camp, comprising SP-BSP-RLD alliance and Congress, however, is difficult to ignore.
The 26 seats in western UP will go to the polls in the first three phases – April 11, April 18 and April 23. While the BJP blitzkrieg is evident with its star campaigners, including PM Narendra Modi, BJP chief Amit Shah and UP CM Yogi Adityanath, thronging the Jat-Muslim belt with rallies, the other major political stakeholder — the grand alliance — is conspicuously silent. In fact, the alliance will hold its first and only mega rally at Deoband in Saharanpur on April 7.
However, the Congress is also yet to be seen on ground zero. Though the party’s eastern UP in-charge Priyanka Gandhi is touring constituencies, her western UP counterpart Jyotiraditya Scindia is yet to make an appearance. Even Congress chief Rahul Gandhi has not been seen in west UP.
“The strategy of both alliance and Congress seems to be different,” says senior political analyst JP Shukla.
“SP-BSP-RLD won’t indulge in a lot of campaigning as they are depending on caste arithmetic to a large extent. The alliance believes that they have a committed silent vote bank which doesn’t need to be convinced. On the contrary, Congress seems to be hesitant,” he adds. The genesis of Congress’ hesitation believably lies in its failure to join the grand alliance in the state.
“Congress has fielded candidates in UP to keep the party alive in the political theatre,” maintains JP Shukla.On the contrary, Dalit ideologue and political observer SR Darapuri has a different reason to offer. He believes that though the top leadership of both parties has come together to stitch up an alliance, the contradiction of it exists on the ground. “There is literally no coordination among the SP and BSP cadre at the ground level because of their decades-long bitterness.”
Discussing the dichotomy of the alliance, Darapuri claims, “The SP supporters, mainly the OBCs who have become well-off in the recent past, find it against their prestige to sit and work with BSP’s Dalit cadre. The BSP cadre fails to gel with Yadavs. Both are not comfortable with each other at the ground level and lack coordination and zeal.”
However, the Samajwadis have a different reason. “The alliance leaders do not want to give any communal traction to the BJP to polarise the political arena of western UP,” says a senior SP leader seeking anonymity. “Akhilesh and Mayawati are keeping away from high decibel rallies repeating their strategy adopted in Kairana bypoll,” adds the SP leader. The alliance is focusing more on door-to-door campaign by foot soldiers of both parties.
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