BJP’s wave is way above caste and regional politics. Its win in the Zila Panchayat polls proves the same

BJP has registered a massive victory in the Uttar Pradesh Zila Panchayat Polls – winning 67 of the 75 seats on which the election was contested. The party won 22 seats unopposed and on the rest of the seats, SP emerged as its main contestant because BSP had decided to not contest in these elections.

BJP’s massive win comes as a big humiliation to Akhilesh Yadav led Samajwadi Party that won big time in the last district body President elections and pushed hard in this election, too. Etawah, Etah, Sant Kabir Nagar, Azamgarh, and Ballia are among the 6 seats that SP could win, while RLD bagged only one seat.

Yogi Adityanath’s leadership is being lauded by the BJP leaders across the country including by Prime Minister. Immediately after the results were declared, Prime Minister Narendra Modi tweeted, “The (BJP’s) win in Zila Panchayat chairman elections was people’s blessing for development, public service and rule of law. The credit goes to policies of CM Yogi Adityanath and workers of the BJP. Congratulations to UP government and BJP organisation.”

BJP’s massive victory in the district body President’s election shows the kind of popularity that Yogi Adityanath enjoys and how his appeal cuts across the caste and regions. In the last few years, Yogi Adityanath has been the main target of the opposition leaders because they want to ensure that BJP loses the 2022 elections in Uttar Pradesh – the most important state for any political party.

In Western Uttar Pradesh, where BJP was supposed to lose given the intensity of farmers’ protests in the region, the party won all seats. In fact, in a number of districts including Agra, Ghaziabad, Gautam Buddha Nagar, Amroha, and Meerut, BJP candidates have been elected unopposed.

This shows that despite all the media hullabaloo about BJP’s electoral prospects being harmed due to the farmers’ protests, BJP is still the most popular party among the electorates. Except for the protestors with ulterior motives, farmers do understand that the farm bills would free them from the tyranny of mandis and end up boosting agricultural income.

The results show that the casteist and communal politics of the SP and BSP did not resonate with the voters, neither did all their phony concerns over the farmers’ issues.

“The BJP has won 67 out of 75 district panchayat chairperson seats. We will win 2022 assembly elections also,” UP BJP chief Swatantra Dev Singh told news agency ANI.

In 2017 Assembly polls, BJP managed to receive a gigantic mandate by securing a 41.4 per cent vote share, which translated to the BJP winning 325 seats in a 403-member state assembly. Nobody had anticipated such a huge wave of Yogi Adityanath in the state and the opposition and detractors were left dumbfounded at the magnitude of the victory.

Fast forward four years, Yogi has become the tallest leader in the country. From developing UP into an industrial state to reducing crime to tackling the first and second wave of the coronavirus pandemic effectively, UP has grown strength to strength with Yogi at the helm.

As reported by TFI, according to an ABP-C Voter survey conducted in March earlier this year, if elections were to held now, BJP would storm into power once again. The BJP is projected to win 289 seats in the 403-seat Uttar Pradesh Assembly. Meanwhile, SP is projected to be the second-largest party with 59 seats followed by BSP with 38 seats but not posing any real challenge to the BJP.

BJP can afford to let its guard down and go easy on the election preparations but ‘ruthless’ seems to be the keyword passed along from the party high command. The preparations have begun and despite the sorry situation of the opposition especially the BSP, the BJP does not want to leave any loophole in its electoral preparedness. Thus, there is no doubt that Yogi is storming back to power, the only question is, by what margin?