BJP to lean on Modi in UP as it targets SP-BSP alliance and juggles restive allies

India वोट Kar | January 8, 2019

Contradictions in SP-BSP alliance, BJP depends on Narendra Modi

The BJP planned to rely on Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s campaigning in Uttar Pradesh ahead of the general election, portraying the SP-BSP alliance as full of contradictions and highlighting what it called corruption under both parties’ governments. At the same time, the party faced pressure from its own allies in the state, Apna Dal and the SBSP.

Modi’s schedule and the campaign line

People aware of the plans said the Prime Minister would address a rally in Agra on January 9 and another in Aligarh, visit Varanasi twice and Lucknow once, and might also go to the Kumbh in Prayagraj. The party was preparing a campaign accusing the SP and the BSP of presiding over lawlessness and corruption whenever they ran the state. They said the Centre’s move on reservation for upper castes could help consolidate the BJP’s core support, given the backward-caste consolidation on the other side, and that sub-categorisation of the OBC quota was also being considered.

Concerns within the BJP

Some BJP members acknowledged that the alliance’s wide caste base could be a challenge. They also said the Yogi Adityanath government had lost much of the goodwill it earned with a Rs 36,000 crore farm loan waiver amid anger over stray cattle and unpaid sugarcane dues to farmers.

The allies posed a separate problem: Apna Dal threatened to leave if OBC sub-categorisation was implemented, while the SBSP said it would quit if it was not. Union minister Anupriya Patel of Apna Dal said on Monday that a caste census should come first, warning that otherwise it would be unjust to backward classes.

A senior state BJP leader questioned how SP and BSP workers who had opposed each other for more than two decades would work together across the whole state, saying cooperation in a couple of by-elections was different. The party had also reviewed the performance of its 68 sitting MPs and public opinion about them, and the leader said a sizeable number could be dropped.