Against resource-rich BJP, Opposition faces last-mile problems in UP

Sandeep Dikshit

Lucknow, May 27

In a change from the testosterone-fuelled election campaign by the BJP in 2019, the Samajwadi Party and the Congress — partners in the Indian National Developmental, Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) — in Uttar Pradesh are giving a tough fight over the issues of joblessness, inflation and a dimming allure of Central freebies.

Barring Varanasi, Lucknow and Gorakhpur, which are stronghold of the BJP, reactions of people from Lucknow cutting across the Awadh and Bhojpur regions suggest cliffhanger even at prestigious seats such as Amethi (Smriti Irani) and Sultanpur (Maneka Gandhi).

People seek parivartan

• In 2019, the situation was different. There was a wave in the favour of the BJP. All of us had voted for ‘kamal’,” said Prasad Sonkar, who deals in transportation of fertiliser bags
• Sonkar believes there will be a “badlav” (shift) this time. As the sun sets and more people approach the humble tea shop in Jaunpur’s Badlapur village, one Rajesh Chaurasia makes his loyalties clear with the SP’s trademark red cap
• Chaurasia had also voted for the BJP in 2019 and for “Baba” (as UP CM Yogi Adityanath is referred to) in 2022. But he is of the opinion that there should be a “parivartan” (change)

“In 2019, the situation was different. There was a wave in the favour of the BJP. All of us had voted for ‘kamal’,” said Prasad Sonkar, who deals in transportation of fertiliser bags. The other four youngsters who had voted with him are clustered around a mobile phone under an awning in the intense heat. Sonkar believes there will be a “badlav” (shift) this time. As the sun sets and more people approach the humble tea shop in Jaunpur’s Badlapur village, one Rajesh Chaurasia makes his loyalties clear with the SP’s trademark red cap. Chaurasia had also voted for the BJP in 2019 and for “Baba” (as UP CM Yogi Adityanath is referred to) in 2022. But he is of the opinion that there should be “parivartan” (change).

Both Sonkar and Chaurasia come from the OBC community whose wholesale shift to the BJP in UP and Bihar with the advent of Narendra Modi in 2014 along with the crystallisation of the upper caste Thakur, Brahmin and Vaishya votes left a divided Opposition fighting for the remaining 50 per cent of the voting populace.

It is these murmurs of discontent and dissatisfaction which have compelled Union Minister Anupriya Patel from Backward Class community, contesting from Mirzapur, to attack Raja Bhaiya, a Thakur. She was aiming to counter-mobilise OBCs in her support by aiming to exploit the age-old rift between the Thakurs and OBCs. The Hindutva juggernaut had supposedly obliterated these societal cleavages but desperate times required desperate measures.

In Sultanpur too, in the last two days before polling, “Mata ji” Menaka Gandhi had to summon her son Varun Gandhi, denied ticket by the BJP from Pilibhit, who was an MP from here in 2014, to indulge in emotional two-minute whistle stops across the constituency. However, sentiments crash against the ground reality of a hard scrabble for votes. At Smriti Irani’s well-decked party office in Gauriganj, an Assembly constituency in Amethi, an army of volunteers is filling BJP-emblazoned bags with silent determination. At least two dozen white SUVs, Fortuners and Mahindra 700, with drivers at their wheels wait to carry these last-minute allurements into the depths of rural Amethi. In contrast, the Congress office in Amethi has a handful of volunteers and a couple of modest sedans parked in the shade.

The BSP and SP party flags can be seen only after crossing Varanasi to Lalgunj, Azamgarh and Ghazipur. These are the three constituencies which the SP is expected to bag.

The modesty of resources available with the Opposition and the persuasive-cum-coercive skills of the ruling combine are apparent for die-hard SP backer Ramesh Yadav in Sultanpur’s Emahat village to wonder if any change can take place in the current circumstances. “Kaante ki takkar hai. Par doosri taraf se janta hi chunav lar rahi hai (It is a tough fight, but from the other side it is the people who are contesting),” he said.