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  India   Upper caste to be BJP’s face in UP

Upper caste to be BJP’s face in UP

Published : Jun 26, 2016, 6:39 am IST
Updated : Jun 26, 2016, 6:39 am IST

The BJP is all set for Uttar Pradesh elections with an upper caste as the party’s face.

The BJP is all set for Uttar Pradesh elections with an upper caste as the party’s face. The party high command, which has already sent a signal to the backward community by making OBC leader Keshav Prasad Maurya the state unit chief, has decided to project an upper caste as that has always been its core vote bank.

Sources said the party may follow the Assam formula in Uttar Pradesh. While not disclosing any names, sources said the party is looking at the option of projecting an upper caste Union minister to lead the party in Uttar Pradesh polls. Like Sarbananda Sonowal, the minister need not quit the Union Cabinet before the polls. The union minister will quit the Cabinet post if BJP manages to form the government in the state.

The BJP also intends to make “maximum use” of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to woo the state’s electorate. A large number of rallies are being planned for Mr Modi, who has described himself as a “UPwallah”.

“He is going to be our main vote catcher,” a senior party functionary said. Of the 403 Assembly seats in the state, the BJP intends to capture over 265, “Mission 265 plus.”

Mr Modi won his second seat from Varanasi in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections. Meanwhile, there are signals that the Bahujan Samaj Party’s heavyweight and dalit face, Swami Prasad Maurya, could now join the BJP. Mr Maurya, who has been camping in Delhi, met some of the BJP’s top leaders on Saturday.

In a major political upset ahead of the UP polls, Mr Maurya quit the BSP on Wednesday, accusing party chief Mayawati of auctioning party tickets for the polls.

A section of the BJP had been rooting for a backward face to be projected as the party’s chief ministerial face. The party high command, however, feels that it has already sent a strong message to the OBCs and extreme backwards by appointing Keshav Prasad Maurya as the state unit chief. Moreover, with the party’s recent “obsession” with wooing the backward vote-bank, reports have been pouring in that the upper castes were “upset” with the party and were considering the BSP and the Congress.

The political reasoning behind projecting an upper caste face is the BJP’s apprehension in failing to consolidate the backward vote.

Brahmins and Thakurs comprise over 20 per cent of the state’s voters (nearly 13 per cent Brahmins and 7.6 per cent Thakurs), while Scheduled Castes and the OBCs together account for 42 per cent votes. The OBC vote is split between the Samajwadi Party and the BSP.

Moreover the Jats, who had overwhelmingly voted for the BJP during the Lok Sabha elections, appear to be miffed over the reservations. “We have decided to work for the BJP’s defeat in Assembly elections in Punjab and Uttar Pradesh as the party has cheated the Jats on the reservation issue in Haryana,” Choudhari Omvir Singh, founder of Vishwa Jat Manch, had declared recently.

In its forthcoming Prant Pracharak meet in July in Kanpur, the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh will focus on the complex caste equation in the state. BJP chief Amit Shah and the top Sangh brass, which includes its chief Mohan Bhagwat, will also discuss coordination between the BJP and the RSS for the UP polls.

The party’s spin doctors, working on a plan to revive the “Modi magic” in the state, claim that in UP’s caste cauldron, “Modi is the only leader who can break the caste barrier and realise Mission-265 plus.”

Besides Mr Modi and Mr Shah, home minister Rajnath Singh will play a prominent role in leading the party’s campaign in Uttar Pradesh.

Location: India, Delhi, New Delhi