Cash crunch hits UP BJP chances

New Delhi: The BJP’s popularity in Uttar Pradesh, which had soared after the Army’s anti-terror surgical strikes in PoK in September, has plummeted following the Centre’s much-touted demonetisation move announced last month, says feedback from the ground received by the party.

Hardships being faced by people of the state owing to a crippling cash crunch have hit the party hard, the feedback says.

BJP workers in UP, who were asked by the party to provide drinking water, tea and snacks to people and assist senior citizens lining up in front of banks and ATMs, are “reluctant” to do the job following “anger among the masses,” an internal report received by the party over the past weeks revealed.

The RSS top brass which met in Delhi last week has also conveyed to the BJP high command that the “lack of homework and preparedness” in executing the demonetisation scheme “has not gone down well among the people across the country”.  

UP functionaries are also “against” Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s and the party high command’s diktat to make this historic move as one of its poll planks at this juncture.

The report from UP also indicated that the “dalit voter, who was moving towards the BJP after the surgical strikes, has now returned to Mayawati’s fold after the demonetisation move.” Farmers were also turning rapidly against the BJP as the demonetisation move has had an adverse impact in the ongoing sowing season.

Complaints were also pouring in to the BJP headquarters in Delhi that the move to go cashless by using technology has also fallen flat. The feedbacks made it clear that people in semi-urban and rural belts were “not being able to get a grasp on it.”

Party bosses have been categorically told that a huge chunk of rural and semi-urban population has only “basic mobile handsets used only for answering and receiving calls.” There’s another section which “does not even have mobile phones.”

While the reports and feedbacks continue to give the party leaders sleepless nights, the BSP led by Ms Mayawati has surged ahead in the race. The saffron high command is now looking for strategies to cope with the situation as the results of forthcoming UP polls could be viewed as a “referendum” to the Centre’s demonetisation scheme.

While BJP workers are apparently groping in the dark with the public sentiment turning against them, BSP activists have fanned out across the state to talk about the “failure” of the scheme.

Taking advantage of the situation and seething rage among the people, Ms Mayawati has dispatched her cadres to western UP, dominated by Jats and Gujjar (mainly the farming community) to highlight the cash crisis.  To make matters worse, the trading community which had been the core vote bank of the BJP was shifting rapidly towards the BSP, sources said.

Akhilesh Yadav-led SP, which was down and out following a raging family feud, has also got a fresh lease of life after the BJP-led NDA decided to ban Rs 1,000 and Rs 500 notes.

By announcing compensation for “demonetisation victims,” UP chief minister Akhilesh Yadav has also climbed up the ladder. Mr Yadav’s “masterstroke”, which rattled the BJP, came following the BSP’s aggressive stand on the issue.