Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) has begun its preparations for the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections scheduled to be held next year. While BJP is in the driving seat as opposition parties struggle to get their election caravan on track, the top brass of the party is taking no prisoner’s approach. It is being reported that BJP’s Chanakya Amit Shah has engineered the formula to throw all the heavyweights leaders into the election battlefield, including Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath.
According to media reports, Yogi will be contesting the legislative polls from the Ayodhya seat to send a bold message to the voters. Any Lok Sabha election in India and its outcome is decided from the semi-final of UP assembly elections. BJP wants to keep its bases covered and thus it is going with an all-out approach of ‘Attack is the best form of defence’.
Deputy Chief Ministers Keshav Prasad Maurya and Dinesh Sharma will also take the plunge in the elections. It is plausible that Maurya will contest from Sirathu seat of Kaushambi while Sharma will fight from one of the seats in Lucknow. Meanwhile, Jal Shakti Minister Mahendra Singh may contest from the Kunda seat of Pratapgarh.
Moreover, BJP is playing the long game here. While the biggies will be contesting the assembly elections and most certainly winning, the MLC seats will fall vacant. These seats can then be filled by the next batch of BJP leaders which could help the cadre in strengthening its core and eventually aid in passing important legislation and bills in the Vidhan Sabha
Ayodhya — the nerve centre
Picking Ayodhya as the potential seat for Yogi could prove to be a masterstroke. Ayodhya is the nerve centre of UP politics this time around ever since the construction of Ram mandir began in full swing. BSP is conducting a Brahmin Sammelan in the district to woo the Hindu voters while Akhilesh Yadav is expected to mount his bicycle and start the temple tour to play the Hindutva card as well.
Ayodhya MLA Ved Prakash Gupta has already remarked that it will be his great fortune to leave the seat for CM Yogi.
Amit Shah – Shiv Prakash duo at it again
Shiv Prakash, National joint General Secretary is expected to weave the magic with Shah once again. In the 2017 elections, the RSS alumnus worked behind the scenes in striking up social combinations, ironing out organisational glitches and keeping the BJP election machine running efficiently. Essentially, Prakash was the numbers guy who remained on troubleshooting duties and ensured that the strategies chalked out by Shah were executed to the tee on the ground.
Reported by TFI, in an attempt to not repeat the mistakes of West Bengal assembly polls where the feedback loop between the party workers and the high command was severely compromised, BJP national general secretary (organisation) BL Santhosh last month held one-on-one meetings with ministers and party leaders in Lucknow, followed by a meeting with CM Yogi at his residence.
And it’s not only the Brahmin or upper- and middle-class Hindu votes that have propelled BJP to the fore. The party has changed the vote dynamics of the state by bringing Dalits into its corner. After laying the foundation stone for the Ram temple in Ayodhya, the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust delivered the first prasad to the house of a Dalit Mahaveer in Ayodhya, which explains the shift in the Dalit votes to the BJP.
As reported by TFI, according to an ABP-C Voter survey conducted in March earlier this year, if elections were to be held now, BJP would storm into power once again. The BJP is projected to win 289 seats in the 403-seat Uttar Pradesh Assembly in March 2021. 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.
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. By introducing the Shah formula of using full throttle, the saffron party is expected to obliterate the opposition, come 2022 elections.