Lok Sabha polls: 'UP ke ladke' to face Modi’s juggernaut, Mayawati goes solo

Lucknow: Uttar Pradesh which sends the largest number of members to the Lok Sabha is crucial for the BJP’s plan for a third consecutive term in office. The I.N.D.I.A. bloc too hopes to put up a respectable fight in the state, now that the Samajwadi Party and the Congress have finally stitched together an alliance.

Uttar Pradesh goes to the polls on all seven phases of the Lok Sabha elections, beginning April 19 and ending on June 1.

The BJP-led ruling coalition won 64 seats -- BJP 62, Apna Da(S) 2 -- out of the total 80 constituencies in 2019, contributing significantly to the overwhelming majority that the Narendra Modi government enjoyed in the outgoing Lok Sabha.

This time the BJP-led NDA alliance expects more from the state, which sends Modi himself to Parliament from Varanasi – a constituency pampered with development projects including remodeling of the area around the Kashi Vishwanath temple.

Uttar Pradesh has been among the most frequented destinations on the PM’s travel list during the past decade, even before the inauguration of the new Ram temple at Ayodhya.

The Bharatiya Janata Party is now set to cash in on Modi’s popularity and the Hindutva appeal in UP.

The BJP is also strengthened in Uttar Pradesh by the support extended by smaller parties. Om Prakash Rajbhar’s Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party’s return to the alliance gives it an edge in the state’s Purvanchal region.

Similarly, Rashtriya Lok Dal leader Jayant Chaudhary’s move to ditch the Samajwadi Party and ally with the BJP is expected to make the NDA’s job easier in western Uttar Pradesh, where Jats and the farming community dominate.

The recent announcement of a posthumous Bharat Ratna for Chaudhary’s grandfather and farmer leader Charan Singh apparently did the trick.

Uttar Pradesh also happens to be a bright spot for the otherwise fledgling opposition INDIA bloc.

After a phase of bitter name-calling between the SP, the main opposition in the state, and the Congress, the two sides finally have a seat-sharing agreement recalling for many the short-lived “UP ke ladke”, or the UP Boys, alliance between Akhilesh Yadav and Congress leader Rahul Gandhi for the 2017 assembly polls.

But the recent Rajya Sabha polls indicated that all is still not well within the SP. It won one less than the expected number of seats, with a dozen MLAs – including the party’s chief whip Manoj Pandey – cross-voting for the BJP.

Some observers say Pandey is now set to get the BJP ticket from Raebareli, the Congress bastion long held by its leader Sonia Gandhi, who has opted for the Rajya Sabha this time.

The UP Congress wants her daughter Priyanka Gandhi Vadra to contest there.

Yadav has come up with a new acronym to give direction to party workers’ efforts. It is going for PDA, which stands for Pichchda (the backward), Dalit and Alpsankhyak (minorities).

Together, the three sections form a big chunk of UP’s electorate, and the SP’s base remains Other Backward Classes and Muslims.

For the Dalit vote – some 20 per cent of the UP electorate -- the SP and the NDA will compete with Mayawati’s Bahujan Samaj Party.

Mayawati has declared that her party will not enter into a seat-sharing agreement with any party. But she appears open to a post-poll agreement.

Over the last few months, the BJP has made some efforts at reaching out to Muslims – targeting specifically the “backward” Pasmanda Muslims. It would also project the abolition of instant triple talaq during the Modi years as an attempt to improve the lot of Muslim women.

Yet, the first list of 51 BJP candidates from UP had no Muslim name. Apart from Modi, the prominent candidates in the BJP list include Defence Minister Rajnath Singh from Lucknow, Smriti Irani from Amethi, Hema Malini from Mathura and Ajay Mishra ‘Teni’ from Kheri.

In the 2019 polls, the SP and the BSP contested as an alliance winning five and 10 seats, respectively.