BJP is looking anxiously at the Congress-SP alliance talks in Uttar Pradesh as it hopes that three-cornered division of votes among the rivals SP, Congress and the BSP could increase its overall tally in Assembly polls.
The party which has already approved over 250 Assembly candidates at the State level is all set to announce its list for all 403 seats by January 20.
The party has been visibly ahead of others in stepping up the scale of its campaign at all the tiers of its organisation since last year having clocked 17,000 Km track, touching each constituency, during ‘Parivartan Yatra’. Out of its 11.5-crore members, 3.5 crore members are in UP alone.
It has put special focus on the booth committees, meetings which have been attended by Party president Amit Shah “and even Prime Minister Narendra Modi who interacted with the committee members and had lunch with them”.
Modi who has, so far, attended six rallies during the campaign in the State is expected to address over a dozen more rallies in the coming February 11 to March 8 UP polls in seven phases, sources said.
The manifesto of the party may represent each region of the Uttar Pradesh, specifically detailing the issues and problems faced by it.
According to sources, the alliance talks between the SP and Congress is being keenly watched by the BJP which trusts that the pact between the two parties could consolidate Muslim votes against it. BJP leaders feel that incumbency-ridden SP is still its main rival and not the BSP.
The party, however, is wary that hot-heads in the BJP may not unnecessarily queer the pitch of its “development-good governance” campaign by their “fiery speeches” in the run up to the poll date.
BJP’s co-in-charge UP Rameshwar Prasad Chaurasia when contacted said demonetisation move by Modi has received “approval” of people across the State. He said though people stood in the queues for some time but felt that the Congress regimes had for over 40 years made them stand in queues for almost every other thing. “Poor of all sections have accepted note-bandi for the long term gain”, he said.