: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Saturday submitted a list of its star campaigners for the polls in Uttar Pradesh to the Election Commission, with some interesting omissions like Sultanpur MP Varun Gandhi and Defence Minister Manohar Parikkar, who was expected to hold public rallies on the Modi government’s ‘surgical strikes’ across the Line of Control between India and Pakistan.
A surprising inclusion is that of Union Minister for Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution Ram Vilas Paswan, who heads the Lok Jan Shakti Party (LJP) but is a member of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA).
“The first two phases include western U.P. and up to Etah, where there is a large Dalit population and the Mayawati-led Bahujan Samaj Party [BSP] is dominant. Rama Shankar Katheria, MP from the area and a Dalit, is also on the list, and reflects the BJP’s attempt to campaign aggressively against the BSP,” said a source.
PM tops list
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, party chief Amit Shah, Home Minister Rajnath Singh and Finance Minister Arun Jaitley top this list of star campaigners.
Veteran BJP leader and Kanpur MP Murli Manohar Joshi and Vinay Katiyar too are absent from the list of 40 leaders, who include Textiles Minister Smriti Irani and younger leaders of the party like Union Ministers Sanjeev Balyan and Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti. The absence of Mr. Parikkar has created ripples as he had been spoken of as a star campaigner on the subject of ‘surgical strikes’. He is also a Rajya Sabha member from Uttar Pradesh and has adopted a village in Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi’s Lok Sabha constituency of Amethi as part of the Sansad Adarsh Gram Yojana (SAGY). “This means that he will be restricted to Goa for these polls,” a source said.
Mr. Varun Gandhi’s mother, Union Minister for Women and Child Development Maneka Gandhi, makes it to the list, but the absence of her son, who is said to be popular in the State but unpopular with the Central leadership, points to all not being well in the party.
Balancing act
The inclusion of Yogi Adityanath, who was said to be miffed with the Central leadership over not finding a place in the State election committee, is a nod to his importance in Gorakhpur and a few surrounding districts in Uttar Pradesh, as well as being someone who articulates a hardline Hindutva approach. The inclusion of Mr. Balyan, Ms. Jyoti, Union Tourism Minister Mahesh Sharma, U.P. BJP general secretary Sunil Bansal as well as the organisational secretary for western U.P. Shiv Prakash, all points to the BJP president Amit Shah’s determination to keep the campaign narrative in his own hands as these leaders are said to be in his circle of trust.
The list also balances out caste equations in the State, with a good sprinkling of Other Backward Castes (OBC) leaders like S.P. Singh Baghel and Uma Bharati making the cut, Rama Shankar Katheria representing a Dalit face, and Union minister Kalraj Mishra as a Brahmin face, going into the polls.
The list well and truly has the stamp of party president Amit Shah, and reflects the balancing act that he is attempting in this fiercely contested election.
