LUCKNOW: Barely a year ahead of the Lok Sabha polls, the BJP appears to have carefully re-crafted its strategy in UP by appropriating other parties’ icons to exercise greater influence across castes. The state with 80 parliamentary seats is said to be in an unenviable situation to become the ‘kingmaker’ in Delhi. The party secured 62 seats in the 2019 polls.
State BJP chief Bhupendra Chaudhury took to Twitter on Wednesday to pay tributes to BSP founder Kanshiram on his 89th birthday. On the other hand, the RSS paid encomiums to two Samjawadi stalwarts, Mulayam Singh Yadav and Sharad Yadav, at the Sangh’s three-day Pratinidhi Sabha in Panipat last week.
The words that Chaudhury chose gave clear indications as to what his party is aiming at. He tweeted a photo of Kanshiram, saying: “kushal rajnitigya, daliton, vanchiton evam shoshiton ke prabhavshali swar” (an adroit politician and an influential voice of Dalits, the deprived and exploited sections of society). It is for the first time that the BJP paid tributes to Kanshiram, the founder president of Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), who catapulted the party into a major political force that helmed UP for four times under its current chief Mayawati.
As expected, BJP’s overtures drew a sharp reaction from the BSP ranks who claimed that the ruling party “did not mean what it said and projected itself as.” “The ideology of the BJP and BSP are different. Only paying tributes to Kanshiram ji would not be enough, the ruling party will have to follow his ideals of Dalit emancipation,” said a senior BSP leader. He said the BJP was posturing to woo Dalits ahead of the polls.
However, the BJP has chosen to combine the comments with its policy of ‘sabka saath, sabka vikas, sabka vishwas and sabka prayas.’ The Modi government has already decided to confer Padma Vibhushan on SP patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav posthumously.
Political analysts say the Sangh has sought to create the space for the BJP to woo Yadavs, the influential caste among OBCs. The RSS had sharp differences with Mulayam, especially over the Ram temple. Yet, Sangh’s latest gesture is being seen as another push to BJP’s efforts of the last five years to have a grip on the Yadav vote bank.
There are instances where the BJP has promoted Yadav leaders in UP to counter SP. It has sent Harnath Yadav to RS and given Santraj Yadav, once a close aide of Shivpal Yadav, a top position in the cooperative sector to neutralize Shivpal.
‘Mission 80’ of BJP in UP
After winning 62 seats in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, the BJP aims to win all 80 seats this time, sensing disunity in the opposition and the perceived charisma of the Yogi Adityanath-led government. To achieve the goal, the BJP is focussing on the aggressive Yadav community as well as Dalits who tend to gravitate towards BSP.
Power play in UP