Confident of their “command performance” in Uttar Pradesh, the BJP claimed on Thursday that they would sweep all ten seats in Western Uttar Pradesh that went to poll on the day.
Relying on “the feedback “that party headquarters received from the ground, the party said there was “a shift from a basket of caste voters” to the BJP and split among minority votes. The 10 seats of Western UP of its 80 parliamentary constituencies went to poll on Thursday of which BJP had won two in 2009 polls. BSP won five, BJP and RlD two each and SP one.
BJP General Secretary and in-charge of UP Amit Shah maintained that under the impact of “Modi wave” even committed caste voters like “Jatavs” who traditionally go for Mayawati’s BSP had moved to the BJP. Asked as what brings “Javats” to the fold of the BJP, the close aide of BJP’s Prime Ministerial candidate Narendra Modi, said in an informal chat that “ it is a subject of research”.
The BJP is sure-footed that it would outperform in all the seats of Saharanpur, Kairana, Muzzafarnagar, Bijnor, Meerut, Bagpat, Ghaziabad, Gautam Buddha Nagar, Bulandshahr and Aligarh. “Jats are disgruntled with the RlD that has lost on their traditional votes and have moved to the BJP”, they said.
The focus is on Muzaffarnagar which experienced riots that left more than 50 people dead and thousands displaced, living in refugee camps. The BJP candidate Sanjiv Ballian’s main opponent in the election is seen to be BSP’s Qadir Rana, the sitting MP. The western UP that saw a high turnout on Thursday with Muzzafarnagar scoring around 67.7 per cent poll turnout with Shamli hit hard by riots witnessed 70.85 per cent voters coming out to cast their franchise. In Ghaziabad former army Chief Gen (retd) VK Singh (BJP) is pitted against Congress nominee and Bollywood actor Raj Babbar and AAP’s Shazia Ilmi.
Baghpat was another lok Sabha constituency that went to poll on Thursday where RlD leader and union minister Ajit Singh and former Mumbai Police Commissioner Dr Satyapal Singh ( BJP) are locked in tough poll battle.
Saharanpur’s constituency’s claim to fame recently was the Congress candidate Imran Masood who used violent language against BJP’s prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi, declaring he would the BJP leader into pieces. The remaining 70 constituencies of UP would go for poll on April 17, April 24, April 30, May 7 and May 12. Senior BJP leaders including Shah, who monitored the voting patter in the party office, on Thursday said “Modi-momentum” could facilitate electorate transcend “cast and community” based voting.
“The development plank has a traction..”, they said and suggested that larger turnout for polling was as an indication of the success of Modi’s campaign across the country.
The Party also gave suggestions that Muslim voters have split in Uttar Pradesh and not going to a single party in the state. “ Pattern is different among young and old in the minority community”, leaders in the party said.