A Second Strike?

The Bjp’s Formidable Party Machinery Seems In Control Of The Poll Campaign In Uttar Pradesh, But Niggles Remain

- Uday Mahurkar

THE BATTLE IN UTT AR PRADESH pits the Samajwadi Party-Bahujan Samaj Party alliance’s Yadav, Dalit and Muslim voters against a BJP campaign focused on Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s narrative of national security celebrating the Balakot air strike. The BJP has been loudly claiming that they will have a repeat of 2014 this year. The electoral arithmetic, of course, doesn’t support this. If the SP-BSP votes in the 2014 Lok Sabha election are put together, then the BJP won’t be winning more than 37 seats in 2019. The latter, though, is counting on Modi’s charisma to iron out all their other shortfalls. The prime minister’s public rallies, in places such as Aligarh, have seen big, enthusiastic crowds. In his speeches, he takes care to vary his focus according to the audience, although national security remains the central theme. That said, he has lost no opportunity to play the BJP’s communal counter strategy card, while playing up the bitter fights of the past between the SP and BSP, and their ‘pro-Muslim’ actions.