BJP readies counter-plan amid Priyanka’s visits to UP

Party plans series of pro-farmer meetings, may give prominence to Jat leaders

LUCKNOW: Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders have readied a counter-plan amid Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra’s frequent visits to Uttar Pradesh in the last few weeks.

The BJP is planning a series of pro-farmer meetings that would include small, rural gatherings and its leaders have started visiting the villages. Besides, some Jat leaders could be given prominence in the party organization, as well as in the anticipated reshuffle cum expansion of the Yogi Adityanath ministry, a local party leader said.

“I won’t be surprised if some are given prominence at the Centre in some capacity,” the BJP leader said.

Several agitating farmers in west UP are Jats and the BJP, it is expected, is hoping to reach out to them in a variety of ways. Groups of farmers backing the new farm laws, too, are active.

The BJP leaders see a pattern in Priyanka’s visits– a combination of pro-farmer approach and a touch of public display centered on “soft Hindutva”.

In the past two weeks, the Congress general secretary has been in the state thrice. On February 4, she visited the family of a Rampur farmer who died during the ongoing stir against farm laws. In Saharanpur, she attended a kisan panchayat on February 10. The next day, she took a dip in the Sangam during Mauni Amavasya in Prayagraj.

On Monday, Priyanka would again be in west UP to attend yet another farmer panchayat.

The Congress leaders, too, say they anticipate a damage control plan and hence feel Priyanka’s visits would be tactically scheduled to tap the discontent against BJP.

“Yes, Priyankaji is the face of the Congress in UP and, naturally, in the run-up to the elections, she would visit every assembly constituency in the state. People are looking to her with hope,” said Congress leader and former lawmaker Akhilesh Pratap Singh.

As the Congress readies Priyanka’s itinerary, the BJP, too, has swung into action. Its state leaders are attending farmers’ meets.

Leaders vested with organisational matters have tasked cadres to collect information on all assembly seats, including the 84 seats that BJP lost in the 2017 UP polls when it won power in the state after a long hiatus.

“Information on all the seats is being collected. We have cadre right down to the rural level. The process to gather feedback on each seat is underway. We are also looking into factors that caused us to lose the seats we did in 2017. And this exercise isn’t governed by any political party or its leader, but by our own desire to excel, set newer benchmarks in public outreach,” a BJP lawmaker privy to the party plan said.

UP BJP chief Swatantra Dev Singh has been leading the party’s rural connect activity, one that comes just ahead of the panchayat polls likely in AprilMay.

Immediately after, the stage would be set for the 2022 UP assembly polls and the BJP, those in the know of things said, has started work on winning the confidence of the farmers by approaching them in small groups in west UP.

Along with Priyanka, Jayant Chaudhary of the Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD), too, has featured prominently in farmer meets.

With political activity increasing in the region, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) Rajya Sabha member Sanjay Singh met Bharatiya

Kisan Union (BKU) chief Naresh Tikait in Muzaffarnagar and touched his feet. In Farrukhabad, veteran Congress leader and former union minister Salman Khurshid attended a farmers’ panchayat.

“As of now, the farmers’ stir appears to be hurting the BJP where RLD and the Samajwadi Party (SP) seem to be gaining. But then, the elections are still far away and by then, we would have recovered lost ground,” a BJP functionary from west UP said on condition of anonymity.

Political experts said the Congress was looking at these farmer panchayats to reclaim lost political ground.

“The Congress is desperate to recover lost political space in the most populous state which holds the key to power in Delhi. But, unlike the main opposition Samajwadi Party and the Bahujan Samaj Party, the Congress doesn’t have a solid organisational base. So, a popular leader of theirs attending kisan mahapanchayats could grab headlines, but it would take much more than that for making political headway,” said Irshad Ilmi, a veteran journalist.

“Moreover, more than the BJP, would the SP and the BSP be comfortable if the Congress rises politically in UP?” he asked.