UTTAR PRADESH
UP ke ladke bite the dust as ‘hand’ fails to prevent ‘cycle’ from crashing
A carefully-crafted strategy combining a number of issues was largely responsible for the BJP’s stunning victory in Uttar Pradesh Assembly election, crushing the fragmented Opposition to secure biggest mandate the party had ever received in the state.
The party was the first to realise the importance of having a strong cadre at the grassroots level that would help ensure that party’s support base converted into votes during elections. Thus the BJP, which was strongly backed by the RSS, had started working on its booth management months before political rivals had even thought about it. Senior BJP and RSS leaders had chalked out an elaborate plan to ensure that its cadre machinery was fully operational in the run up to the polls to not only ensure that the key policies of the Modi government were aggressively publicised but to ensure that this also got converted into votes. And the massive numbers for BJP proves that this worked.
Mobilisation by the cadre on the ground ensured that any negative impact of big ticket policies like demonetisation was not fully neutralised but it helped work in favour of the BJP as the party cadre was successfully able to drive home the point that the policy was actually “pro-poor”.’ It was not just the dedicated cadre of BJP-RSS combine that worked like an oiled machine but the party also managed to rope in nearly two crore new members in UP during a special membership drive launched last year.
In fact, the BJP had started working on UP Assembly elections in 2014 itself when after the elevation of Amit Shah as party president his close confidante Om Mathur was made in charge of UP.
It is believed the party’s election machinery at the grassroots level could also convince women Muslim voters on the Centre’s stand against triple talaq as it is believed that a section of women voters from the minority community could well have gone to the BJP.
BJP leaders admit that the strategy was similar to the 2014 Lok Sabha elections when party won 73 of the 80 seats in UP as the party ensured that even “dark areas of the state where BJP had no presence” were also covered by the party workers.
Changing the narrative during the course of elections from development to emotive issues like “kabristan and shamshaan” and power supply during “Ramzaan and Diwali” are also believed to have led to a reverse polarisation for the BJP, consolidating the Hindu vote in the saffron party’s favour.
Interestingly, the results prove that consolidation of the Hindu vote was across caste, from OBCs to most backward to the upper caste. The fact that BSP could manage only 19 seats proves that its dalit votes also shifted in favour of the BJP which is traditionally aligned with upper caste Hindu vote bank of “Thakurs, Brahmins and Baniyas”. Similarly, the “reverse polarisation” is also believed to have helped the BJP make a dent into Samajwadi Party’s core base of Yadavs.