Amit Shah back to set the poll narrative from west UP
In December, Shah while campaigning for the BJP, pitched the Yogi govt as one that had ended the rule of “bahubalis”
LUCKNOW: After targeting the opposition camp with the “NIZAM” jibe during his firstround campaign in western Uttar Pradesh (UP) in December, Union home minister Amit Shah on Saturday launched the second phase of his electioneering from Kairana.
Kairana is a western UP town from where BJP had first flagged the “palayan” (Hindu exodus issue). More recently, amid growing criticism from the BJP, the Samajwadi Party was forced to replace its Kairana candidate Nahid Hasan with his sister Iqra. The step was taken after Hasan was arrested under the Gangsters Act, a development that provided fresh ammunition to the ruling party to target the SP.
All top BJP leaders have trained their guns on the SP for fielding “tainted candidates”.
The BJP leaders who have led the attack include chief minister Yogi Adityanath, deputy CM Keshav Prasad Maurya, Union minister Anurag Thakur, state BJP chief Swatantra Dev and former UP DGP Brij Lal, now the BJP’s Rajya Sabha MP.
“The first candidate on the SP list was Nahid Hasan, who is now in jail. While they field such candidates, we have fielded honest officers like IPS Asim Arun and that’s why we say farq saaf hai (the difference is clear),” said Thakur.
“The SP list shows its character. After their first list, the SP has now developed cold feet,” Yogi Adityanath has been stating. Deputy CM Maurya has said that replacing a tainted candidate with a family member was unacceptable too.
Back in 2017, with Shah as BJP chief, the party had gone into the elections targeting the SP with the slogan “na goondaraj, na bhrastachar bhajapa layegi aisi sarkaar (no hooliganism, no corruption, such will be BJP government).” Now, after five years in power, Shah is back again to set the narrative, targeting the SP to strike down its campaign to unseat the BJP.
In December, Shah while campaigning for the BJP, pitched the Yogi Adityanath government as one that had ended the rule of “bahubalis (strongmen)”.
He had made this point during his “Jan Vishwas” rallies in Aligarh and Moradabad.
“Now, there are no bahubalis in UP. There is only Bajrangbali now,” he had said. Bajrangbali is a Hindu god. Amit Shah had also set the poll pitch with his NIZAM jibe at his opponents.
“Nizam means rule. So, during the pre-BJP days, NIZAM, especially that of the SP, meant N for Naseemuddin, I for Imran Masood, AZ for Azam Khan and M for Mukhtar Ansari,” he had said. Shah, who is widely credited for tapping the Modi wave to script BJP’s spectacular success in UP in 2017 (when he was the party’s UP in-charge), had also coined triple P – “parivarwad (dynastic rule), pakhshpat (favoritism) and palayan (exodus)” – to target the Samajwadi Party. He had pitched the BJP as a party with triple Vs – “vikas (development), vyapar (trade) and virasat (cultural heritage).”
“Shah does his homework before undertaking any task. Naturally, this choice of Kairana wasn’t coincidental,” a senior BJP leader said. This BJP leader also recalled how Shah had spent months in UP fine-tuning the party’s strategy.
“Passion and commitment are synonymous with Shah. As the UP in-charge, he kept a strong grip on the narrative, toured extensively, stayed in the state for months and operated from a rented accommodation. This time, too, despite his pressing responsibilities as the Union home minister, he has held nearly 15 rallies and road shows in phase 1 of the UP campaign. He is now back again to work for the party’s cause,” the leader said.
In his previous campaigns in the 2014 Lok Sabha election, Shah had also flagged the issue of appeasement with a cleverly crafted line. “Amit ka haq Anwar ko kyon (why should Anwar grab what is Amit’s due),” he had said. Now, in the 2022 UP polls, Shah’s selection of Kairana to launch phase two of the campaign has its own meaning, political experts say.
It’s from Kairana that the BJP veteran the late Hukum Singh had flagged the “palayan” (Hindu exodus) issue. It became a key BJP plank in the 2017 UP elections.