CM Yogi may be tasked with wooing Guj voters

Vibha Sharma

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, March 27

Uttar Pradesh won, BJP’s new star campaigner Yogi Adityanath is now expected to be given the responsibility of wooing voters in Himachal and in PM Narendra Modi’s home state Gujarat where the saffron party is facing several challenges, including a massive anti-incumbency sentiment.

Adityanath, BJP sources insist, was always party chief Amit Shah’s first choice for the top post in UP and was, therefore, given “facilities and freedom” in the run-up to the elections. He is now expected to deliver in Gujarat where the BJP has set itself the target of “at least a two-third majority” in the 182-member Assembly.

The 2017 polls will be the first since the past many years that the BJP will be contesting without Modi as CM. However, like everywhere else, the Prime Minister is expected to lead from the front in Gujarat too. But with the Congress and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) breathing down its neck and the Patel community’s firebrand leader, Hardik Patel, making things difficult, the BJP can do with some extra help. And this is where Yogi Adityanath, the young new face of Hindutva politics—assumes importance.

As the Chief Minister of India’s most populous state, Yogi is in the league of BJP’s top-rung leaders. Some analysts say his star value is more than that of any other BJP CM and foresee a bigger role for him in the country’s politics. It will not be easy for the BJP to achieve the target of 150 seats in Gujarat, considering the not-so-good performance at the panchayat level, anger among the Patels, suicide by farmers and attacks on Dalits. To retain Gujarat is now a prestige issue for the party.