Saffron party plays its Brahmin card
In 2017 UP polls too, BJP had got key Brahmin leaders from opposition space to defect
LUCKNOW: Former union minister Jitin Prasada, 47, joining the BJP on Wednesday may help the saffron party address the issue of perceived neglect of Brahmins ahead of the 2022 UP assembly polls.
Jitin Prasada, who in all probability is likely to be fielded in 2022 UP polls and may be among the star campaigners for the party, was among top opposition leaders who had through his ‘Brahmin Chetna Parishad’ been taking up the issue of neglect of Brahmins under the current BJP regime in UP. “Because, he was among those leaders considered close to the Congress top leadership, Jitin Prasada becomes even more important in UP,” a BJP leader explained.
In 2017 UP polls too, BJP had got key Brahmin leaders from opposition space to defect - first getting Brajesh Pathak of the BSP, barely a day after he had coordinated a well-attended Mayawati rally and followed it up by getting former Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee chief Rita Bahuguna Joshi, daughter of former UP chief minister Hemwati Nandan Bahuguna, to join the party. Both Pathak and Joshi had joined in 2016 within a few months of each other, both were given tickets to contest from coveted Lucknow assembly seats that are known as BJP bastions, and both made ministers in the Yogi Adityanath government after party’s landslide win. Joshi is now a BJP MP from Prayagraj.
“Despite its shift to OBC-Dalits, the numerically dominant political vote banks, the BJP has nearer to the assembly polls treated ‘imported’ Brahmin leaders with respect and I think Jitin Prasada, who had twice been defeated in the Narendra Modi wave of 2014 and 2019 Lok Sabha polls but continues to have a following in several regions, would be rewarded well,” a BJP leader said.
Within the BJP, the joining of yet another key Brahmin leader from the opposition ranks is being seen as party leadership’s desire to look beyond the current crop of home-grown Brahmin leadership, largely limited to the likes of deputy chief minister Dinesh Sharma, a former mayor and presently an MLC, and Rajya Sabha MP and union minister Shiv Pratap Shukla.
Barely a year after being persuaded by the Congress top leadership to reject BJP’s overtures in 2019, Jitin Prasada had set up a ‘Brahmin Chetna Parishad’ in 2020 to rally the Brahmins and had been targeting the Yogi Adityanath government for neglecting the community.
In fact, till May, he had been tweeting Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s attack on the BJP. However, it was his June 5 tweet, wishing UP chief minister Yogi Adityanath on his birthday that had first made many in the Congress uneasy.
“Efforts were made to contact him since, but he remained inaccessible until today when it all came out in the open after his meeting Union home minister Amit Shah and railway minister Piyush Goel, followed by his meeting with BJP chief JP Nadda and his formal induction into the BJP,” a Congress leader said while admitting Prasada’s exit was a loss to the Congress.
“He was feeling neglected. Though the Congress top leadership wanted him, a personal secretary of a powerful leader in the party was busy promoting Jitin Prasada’s adversary in the Lakhimpur Kheri region,” a Congress leader said.
Prasada had won the 2009 Lok Sabha polls from Dharauhra Lok Sabha constituency, where he was credited of having carried out several development tasks –
We welcome Jitin Prasada ji on leaving the Cong and joining the BJP. Jitin Prasada ji’s joining will surely help strengthen the BJP in UP. YOGI ADITYANATH, UP CM
helping in the setting up of an ONGC hospital in Sisaiya, a charity eye hospital in Mohammadi and several projects to address the issue of annual floods that played havoc in the region.
Some Congress leaders admitted that Prasada, whose father and political stalwart Jitendra Prasada had also served as political
Jitin Prasada ji is welcome in the BJP. I am fully confident that with him in the party, BJP’s pledge to serve the masses would be further strengthened. AMIT SHAH, Home minister
He ditched a party that had given him so much. What kind of a leader was he? He failed to win assembly polls, lost series of Lok Sabha polls and have been ungrateful to a party that helped him establish his identity, gave him respect and position. Congress won’t be harmed by his exit. AJAY KUMAR ‘LALLU’, UPCC chief
advisor to former Prime Ministers Rajiv Gandhi and PV Narasimha Rao, was politically of great value to the Bharatiya Janata Party in UP where the ruling party had appointed Brahmins in key bureaucratic positions to address the issue of perceived neglect of community.