Poaching of rival leaders and keeping one’s stock safe are keeping parties busy

As the battle for ballot heats up in the nation’s most populous and politically significant State of Uttar Pradesh, the big guns are spelling out poll promises one after the other and lapping up leaders of any standing left, right and centre. After the Samajwadi Party managed to surprise the ‘twin-engine’ BJP Government by scooping up a host of saffron party leaders and MLAs in the State, including two Cabinet Ministers, the BJP pulled off a coup of sorts by recently drawing SP patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav’s daughter-in-law Aparna into its fold. Then, as the race at the hustings enters the last lap, it has moved quickly to retrieve the ground lost on account of being deserted by 14 prominent OBC leaders. In the latest such move aimed at covering the ground thus ceded to the SP, the BJP has announced that it would contest the 403 State seats “jointly” with its allies Apna Dal and Nishad Party; thus using the occasion to burnish its pro-OBC credentials. The saffron party also paraded Apna Dal’s Anupriya Patel and Nishad Party’s Sanjay Nishad on the occasion, where the duo complimented the BJP Governments on the steps taken for the empowerment and uplift of the socially and economically marginalised communities.

Meanwhile, trouble seems to be brewing for the party in the Ghaziabad area, especially in the Sahibabad and Ghaziabad Assembly segments, where its cadre are reportedly unhappy with the leadership for having fielded all five incumbent MLAs. The undercurrent of opposition is largely centred among the Purvanchalis (people from eastern Uttar Pradesh and Bihar), who have a significant presence in these segments and are among the largest voter bases in the area. Also, making matters tougher for the ruling party, SP president Akhilesh Yadav has hinted that he may contest the Assembly election, the first time he will be doing so, though it is unlikely to be Azamgarh which got him elected to the Lok Sabha. Also, Bharatiya Kisan Union chief Naresh Tikait has reiterated that supporting the BJP in three previous elections (2014, 2019 Lok Sabha and 2017 Assembly elections) was “a big mistake”. The farming community, especially in UP and Punjab, is miffed with the BJP for having given it short shrift during the farmers’ agitation. With just about a couple of weeks more to go for voting, the battle is now in the do-or-die stage.