Parties are luring UP voters by claiming that the election is already in their bag

As the electoral battle for the politically significant State of Uttar Pradesh enters its last lap, the fault lines between the “double-engine” BJP Government and the assorted Opposition parties have congealed to narrow down mainly into two narratives: Attracting Muslim votes, and portraying oneself as the sole guardian of nationalism and national interests. Whether the BJP’s ongoing and regular Hindutva push would find an echo in Ayodhya, the epicentre of the Ram temple movement, is to look out for when the Assembly poll results are declared on March 10. Adding some spice and hitting the SP where it hurts the party the most, Prime Minister Narendra Modi called the ongoing Assembly election phases a contest between the “dynasts” and “diehard nationalists”. Seeking to play on the sentiments of nationalism which the saffron party has been trying too hard to plant among the voters apparently to reap a harvest at the hustings on March 10, he has been reminding the electorate that while the “dynasts” (read the SP) had sought proof of the Balakote air strikes, the BJP was pursuing “rashtrabhakti” (patriotism). Modi has also been terming the Opposition parties “private properties” while pointing to the novelty of the cadre-based BJP.

In another astute move, Modi has sought to wean away Muslim women voters when he squarely blamed the “dynasts” for ignoring their “mountain-like” problems due to evil practices like the triple talaq, allegedly focused as they were on their ‘vote bank politics’. Women voters make up for roughly 50 per cent of the electorate’s strength, which would mathematically negate the votes of their supposedly “angry-with-the-BJP” menfolk, giving an undeniable push to the saffron party’s fortunes if the women feel convinced of the Prime Minister’s actions and intentions. Meanwhile, SP president Akhilesh Yadav and Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath are engaged in their own aside, the former claiming that the people of UP have decided to send ‘Babaji’ back to his ‘math’, and the latter taunting Akhilesh that he would remain a “babua” (childish) throughout life. Currently, almost all the parties in the poll fray are busy proclaiming that each one of them has the election in the bag and that it would form the Government in the State, which is nothing more than mere mind games to sway the electorate in the remaining two phases of the election. It could go any which way!