Rajnath Singh expected to take charge of campaigning along with Amit Shah

The BJP is looking at the option of projecting a face for the post of UP CM at its Allahabad national executive starting Saturday. While the three-day national executive will take a hard look at probable candidates, Union home minister Rajnath Singh is expected take charge of campaigning along with party president Amit Shah. Sources revealed, contrary to speculation, that Mr Singh “will not be the face of the party, but the elections will be held under his umbrella leadership”.

However, both Mr Singh and Mr Shah, along with other top UP leaders, will chalk out the party’s strategy. “It will be collective responsibility,” a senior party functionary maintained.

Besides trying to pick a face for CM, the BJP will also lean on the charisma of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who is expected to hold one rally in the state every month. Other top leaders, including the party president, will regularly address rallies and hold meetings with party workers in Uttar Pradesh.

On Saturday, defence minister Manohar Parrikar announced that the BJP would soon declare its chief ministerial candidate for UP. One the main agendas of the national executive will be to target the SP on law and order. It was learnt that the Mathura violence will find a prominent place in the political resolution to be adopted by the party at the end of the national executive meeting.

Sending a signal, Mr Parrikar attacked the Samajwadi Party government over the Mathura violence at a Vikas Parv function in Ghaziabad Saturday, saying that “goonda raj” prevailed in UP. He observed that the people of UP were feeling betrayed and it was the appropriate time to change the government.

Despite Mr Amit Shah’s repeated claims that the SP is “enemy number one”, the BJP is apparently more concerned about BSP chief Mayawati. Unlike others, Ms Mayawati has unleashed a “silent campaign” and her workers are moving door to door. She has also expanded her social engineering by sending signals to traders and Jats. In the last Lok Sabha polls, the Jats had voted overwhelmingly for the BJP.

To counter Ms Mayawati’s iron grip over the dalits and extremely backward communities, the BJP has thrown its weight behind a six-month yatra by Buddhist monks. The yatra, led by 87-year-old Dr Dhamma Viriyo, former Rajya Sabha member and head of All-India Bhikkhu Sangh, completed the first phase of the yatra on June 5, and the PMO is reportedly monitoring its progress.

The BJP is planning a grand event at the conclusion of the yatra at Lucknow on October 14. The BJP’s move to rope in Dr Dhamma Viriyo has also led to controversies as Bhante Pragyadeep, general secretary of the All-India Bhikkhu Sangh, one of the oldest pan-India societies of Buddhist monks, told the digital media: “I don’t know whether he will succeed in making dalits vote for Modi in the UP elections, but I do know that he will bring, in the process, a very bad name for Buddhism.”

Dhamma Viriyo was accused by the ministry of culture in 2011 of misusing funds. “The charges against him were so serious that he had become unfit to lead Buddhist monks,” Pragyadeep had alleged in his interview to digital media.