With its focus now firmly fixed on Uttar Pradesh where the Assembly elections are due early next year, the Bharatiya Janata Party is now preparing a roadmap to counter the growing “interference” of Bi
With its focus now firmly fixed on Uttar Pradesh where the Assembly elections are due early next year, the Bharatiya Janata Party is now preparing a roadmap to counter the growing “interference” of Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar in Uttar Pradesh.
In the past four months, Mr Kumar has held programmes in Varanasi (which is Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s constituency), Ghazipur, Mirzapur and Lucknow and has attracted sizeable crowds even though the Janata Dal (U) has negligible political presence in the state.
“It is clear that Nitish Kumar is trying to enlist the support of the Kurmi community which is second only to the Yadav population in the state but we are also preparing our plan to counter him in the state,” said a party functionary.
The Kurmi population in Uttar Pradesh is nine per cent of the total population and 24 per cent of the OBC population. Yadavs, who constitute 15 per cent of the state’s population, comprise 40 per cent of the OBC population.
According to sources, BJP president Amit Shah has already included Kurmi-dominated districts, like Pratapgarh, Kaushambhi, Mirzapur, Sonebhadra, Bahraich, Barabanki, Gonda and Varanasi, in his itinerary for the pre-Assembly poll meetings and programmes. The BJP, last month, held its national executive in Allahabad, another district with sizeable Kurmi population.
The recent inclusion of Apna Dal MP Anupriya Patel in the Union Cabinet is also a part of the BJP’s game plan to prevent Kurmis from crossing over to the JD(U). Ms Patel, sources said, will be extensively campaigning for her party as well as the BJP to ensure that Kurmis do not “waste” their vote by opting for another party.
According to sources, the BJP plans to deploy Kurmi leaders, like Vinay Katiyar and Om Prakash Singh, both former state presidents, in mobilising Kurmis and senior party leader Swatantra Dev Singh will also be touring Kurmi-dominated areas before the polls.
BJP strategy-makers feel that though the JD(U) will not be able to make inroads in UP since the party has neither an organisation nor a base in the state, it is making sure that Mr Kumar does not wean away non-Yadav OBCs.
The JD(U), meanwhile, is quietly working on sewing up alliances with smaller parties that have no takers. Sources said that parties like the Qaumi Ekta Dal, that is still smarting after its quick divorce with the Samajwadi Party, Apna Dal (Krishna Patel faction), Peace Party and Muslim Majlis could join hands with the JD(U) to form a grand alliance of sorts.
