The first phase of polling in UP for 58 assembly seats, held on February 10, has BJP clearly in the lead, said state Cabinet Minister Sidharth Nath Singh in an interview with Moneycontrol.
Singh is the more civil face of the BJP, a fluent bilingual, official spokesperson of the party, and key member of the Yogi Adityanath establishment.
What does he base his assessment on? ``There is no doubt that there has been religious polarisation. The Samajwadi Party (SP) has been trying to get Muslim votes and has indulged in out and out minority appeasement, so Hindus have lined up in large numbers to vote for the BJP,” said Singh, who is the grandson of former Prime Minister of India Lal Bahadur Shastri.
In Singh’s opinion, the Jats, who were perceived to have been cut up with the BJP on account of the year-long farmers’ agitation, did not come out to vote in large numbers, blunting the edge of the SP-Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) combine in west UP.
Will Priyanka Gandhi make an impact, as some observers claim she will? “The Congress would be lucky to get as many as seven seats, which they won in the 2017 state assembly elections,” said Singh, who is contesting from the prestigious Allahabad West constituency.
The Congress party’s fall has been tremendous – from 388 seats in 1951, the first assembly elections in India, to a measly seven in 2017 – in a matter of six decades.
Read also: BJP 'copy-pasted' pledges made by Congress: Priyanka Gandhi Vadra
Earlier this month, Sidharth Nath Singh was waylaid by a young man with a blade and a packet of what seemed like poison, when Singh was on his way to file his nomination papers for the assembly elections. Later the police suggested that the young man may have wanted to attempt suicide in front of the minister.
BJP’s kingslayer
The minister of khadi and villages, sericulture and textile in Yogi Adityanath's cabinet, Singh is regarded as a significant face in the ongoing UP assembly elections.
In the 2017 assembly elections, from the same Prayagraj (Allahabad) West assembly seat, Singh had defeated Pooja Pal, a BSP MLA of 10 years. After BJP formed the government in Uttar Pradesh, Singh was given the charge of Health Ministry.
Singh, a strong critic of the SP chief Akhilesh Yadav, is convinced that the opposition leader and his party, despite speculation, will bite the dust as he did in 2017, when the SP got 47 assembly seats.
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