In a bid to consolidate its core votebank, a section of the BJP wants Hindutva hawk and party MP Yogi Adityanath to be its “face” during the 2017 Assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh.
In a bid to consolidate its core votebank, a section of the BJP wants Hindutva hawk and party MP Yogi Adityanath to be its “face” during the 2017 Assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh. Some in the party, particularly sadhus who are backing the BJP, feel Adityanath could bring back and consolidate the party’s Hindutva votebank that has been slipping away of late.
With the BJP’s development plank virtually falling flat, the saffron camp now hopes to play the jingoism and “extreme nationalism” card to consolidate its core base and “energise its cadre”. After the debacle in the Bihar polls, the party sensed that besides young people, even the dalits and OBCs who had voted overwhelmingly for the BJP in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections were now abandoning them. “Extreme nationalism”, the party feels, is the only card that could cut across the caste divide and bring the OBCs and dalits back to its fold.
Saffron spin doctors also feel “jingoism” and “extreme nationalism” could help the party in the forthcoming polls in Assam, West Bengal and UP. While in Assam and West Bengal, the minorities could be the deciding factor, in UP the minorities-backwards combination had always played a crucial role in government formation. Raising the pitch, BJP president Amit Shah said on Wednesday that the parties in Parliament should clarify whether raising of slogans against the nation fell within the purview of “freedom of speech” or “sedition”. Mr Shah chose to target Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi in particular. Hitting out at him for joining the JNU students in their protests, Mr Shah accused him of backing the forces dividing the country for “votebank politics”. Speaking at the unveiling of the statue of 11th century king of Shravasti Raja Suheldeo, Mr Shah lashed out: “I specially want to ask the Congress and its workers if those raising slogans like ‘Afzal Guru tere hatyare zinda hain’ and ‘Bharat ke tukde honge’ were traitors or not.” He then said: “I want that members of all parties sitting in the biggest panchayat of the country, which is Parliament, should clarify whether raising anti-national slogans was freedom of speech or sedition. This also has to be decided by the people of the country.”
On Yogi Adityanath, there are reports that around 2,000 sadhus from the Dharma Jagran Vibhag wing of the Sangh have demanded that the BJP declare the Gorakhpur MP as its chief ministerial candidate for the Assembly polls next year. Besides this, a section in the party argued that Yogi Adityanath would “appeal to the core votebank and could be flaunted also as a symbol of nationalism”.
Adityanath has been making controversial remarks on the JNU issue. “It has become a habit there. Running with grants provided from the taxes paid by people, JNU has become a blot on education,” was one such remark. Another was: “Whether it is matter of a beef party or the celebration of Mahishasura Jayanti, if any educational institution facilitates such events in the name of progressiveness, such an institution should be closed down in the interest of the nation.”
