In the 2014 Lok Sabha Elections, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had stunned many by winning 71 out of 80 seats in Uttar Pradesh, along with ally Apna Dal winning two. It was the pre-Narendra Modi era and Rajnath Sigh was the BJP President then. But the responsibility of winning India’s largest state fell on Amit Shah. Five years later, Shah was the BJP President who had to campaign across India. BJP’s UP tally fell to 62. But with an ambitious 400+ seats target this time, Amit Shah is back to micro-managing in Uttar Pradesh to ensure BJP’s UP tally surpasses its 2014 mark.
Shah has been meeting non-NDA leaders, chalking ground strategies and visiting the seats to ensure their smooth implementation, in pursuit of bypassing the 71 mark.
DOUSING BRAHMIN IRE IN RAEBARELI
Two key leaders of the area — Congress’s Aditi Singh and Samajwadi Party’s Manoj Pandey — both have sided with the BJP with Aditi Singh being a member of the saffron party. Even Dinesh Pratap Singh is a former Congressman. But Pandey, who, resigned as chief whip of the SP this February to facilitate cross-voting in the Rajya Sabha election in Uttar Pradesh in favour of the BJP, has not yet joined the saffron fold.
It’s believed that Pandey, a Brahmin himself, was expecting a BJP ticket from Raebareli. What has complicated the matter for the BJP is the fact that Dinesh Pratap Singh and Manoj Pandey don’t share a friendly equation. In caste-sensitive UP, the Brahmin community in the area, who form a whopping 18 per cent of the electorate of this seat, took it as an insult to them.
In this precarious situation, during his visit to Raebareli, where Shah addressed a rally, he reached out to Pandey. Knowing fully well, Pandey, still a member of SP — cannot campaign for Singh, while his son and brother were recently inducted into the BJP. As Shah went to Pandey’s residence to “seek his support”, little is known about what transpired between the two. But taking no chance, the BJP launched UP Deputy CM Brajesh Pathak, another Brahmin face in state politics, in Raebareli.
WORK IN PROGRESS: RAJA BHAIYA & SHAH
Another key leader of Uttar Pradesh who Amit Shah met last week is Konda’s Raja Bhaiya, the Chief of Jansatta Dal Loktantrik. However, this meeting took place in Bengaluru. Sources say a senior BJP leader of UP arranged the meeting. When Shah visited Lucknow, Raja Bhaiya was out of town. Hence, the meeting was scheduled in Bengaluru on a date that suited both, said BJP sources. Raja Bhaiya went on record to say politics was discussed between the two but refused to be specific.
In the state, Union Minister Sanjiv Balyan also visited him with a specific request to extend his support in the Pratapgarh Lok Sabha constituency where he has considerable influence.
While he sided with the BJP in the Rajya Sabha election, these meetings don’t seem to have worked. On popular demand from his supporters, he decided not to extend support to either BJP or SP — two parties that asked for it. This decision came after a late evening meeting at Beti in UP while reminding that the electorate of Konda and Babganj assembly seats — where he enjoys unparalleled influence — have the power to decide who wins Pratapgarh.
Earlier, murmurs of him sharing the stage with Shah at Pratapgarh on May 12, following his Bengaluru meeting with the Home Minister, proved to be just mere speculation.
A BJP leader from Uttar Pradesh told News18 on the condition of anonymity, “I think a couple of things are at play here. One of them is complaints from the Kshatriya community against the BJP and another a personal demand of Raja Bhaiya. Since the HM is seized of the matter, we hope Raja Bhaiya will reconsider his position.”
SHAH GETS JAUNPUR DONE
Just days after Amit Shah met gangster-turned-politician Dhananjay Singh, the former BSP MP on Tuesday announced his support for the BJP in Jaunpur for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections. Like Raja Bhaiya, Singh too held a meeting with his supporters on Tuesday after which he announced his support for the BJP.
Like Raja Bhaiya is considered to be the kingmaker in Pratapgarh, Dhananjay Singh is perceived to be the kingmaker of Jaunpur, a seat where he yields considerable influence.
Interestingly, the move came after Shah met him and a week after the BSP cancelled his wife Shreekala Singh’s ticket for the Jaunpur Lok Sabha seat, which he claimed was intentionally done to “humiliate” him.
While the BSP nominated its sitting MP Shyam Singh Yadav for the seat, the local strongman came out in support of the BJP candidate Kripa Shankar Singh after Shah’s intervention.
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