BJP rushes to placate Brahmin community in UP ahead of polls

NEW DELHI:  In the face of Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra leading the charge of her party in Uttar Pradesh, BJP’s UP election in-charge Dharmendra Pradhan on Sunday held a stock taking exercise and strategised to woo the Brahmin community.

The BJP leaders are largely unanimous that the Congress party’s campaign will cut into the Brahmin vote base, which is known to be nursing grievances with the saffron outfit in Uttar Pradesh.

BJP’s Brahmin leaders, including deputy chief minister Dinesh Sharma, attended the meeting. Incidentally, beleaguered Union Minister Ajay Mishra Teni, who has been lying low after the Lakhimpur Kheri incident, was also among the attendees.        

The BJP is roping leaders who were recently sidelined, including former Union Minister and Lok Sabha MP Mahesh Sharma.

It has been reliably learnt that the Brahmin leaders with any sort of visibility will be tasked to man the Assembly constituencies.

While the BJP considers the upper castes, including Brahmins, as catchment constituency, its leaders’ on-ground assessments are learnt to have noted the stress, which need to be addressed.

“Brahmins in UP have been the kingmakers. They had even joined ranks with the BSP previously. They had been, along with the scheduled castes, the traditional vote base of the Congress before the advent of the socialist identity politics,” said a senior BJP functionary.  

The BJP strategy, it has been learnt, is to showcase the efforts of the Centre and state to renovate the temples, including the Kasi Viswanath and the overall development of Varanasi.

The party will largely bank on its Brahmin faces who can pull people with their appeals, added the BJP functionary.

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