Modi to face litmus test in Poorvanchal
21 March 2014 12:42 AM GMT
If he manages to push BJP ahead in this area, which has a terrain conventionally not suitable for the harvest of lotus (BJP’s party symbol); his party would certainly romp home in the BJP-centric states.
With the allotment of tickets almost over, the impact of Narendra Modi in the choice of candidates from the state of Uttar Pradesh is most visible. Gujarat chief minister has gone completely by the advice of his most trusted aide Amit Shah, who has been camping in Uttar Pradesh for the past several months. Party president Rajnath Singh, the wily Thakur from Mirzapur, has played safe deciding to hitch on the Modi bandwagon and secure for himself a seat of comfort in the heat and dust of a tough electoral battle.
The Modi camp, on the other hand, has accepted the challenge having pitched their mascot from the most difficult terrain. BJP strategists claim that with their prime ministerial candidate standing from Varanasi, it would enhance fortunes of the party on 33-odd seats of Poorvanchal extending across two most populous states. However, on the ground BJP holds just six of these seats. There are 10 seats where the BJP has not ever opened its account and another 10 seats on which they have tasted defeat in the last two elections.
There are nine seats in the area on which BJP was on the third position in the last Lok Sabha polls and on the 5th position on Chandausi seat, which borders with the Varanasi seat. Analysts point out that even at the peak of the Ramjanambhoomi Movement, when bjp managed to get 57 seats from the state, the Poorvanchal area contributed for just 12 seats.
In the midst of the adverse situation, what Modi is looking forward to is the polarisation of votes on religious lines. While Arvind Kejriwal in his own way may be trumpeting his bugle against him, on a more serious political note the decision of Samajwadi Party leader Mulayam Singh Yadav has certainly rekindled hopes of Muslim-Yadav combination and both are politically dominant community.
In Varanasi itself BJP’s veteran Murli Manohar Joshi had managed to win last time scrapping through by just 18000 votes with BSP’s Mukhtar Ansari coming second. The poll had witnessed a five cornered fight with candidates from Samajwadi Party, Congress and Apna Dal too polling substantial votes in their favour. Should the non-BJP parties come together to oppose Modi’s candidature, for the BJP’s prime ministerial candidate it would be the case of baptism by fire.
With the allotment of tickets almost over, the impact of Narendra Modi in the choice of candidates from the state of Uttar Pradesh is most visible. Gujarat chief minister has gone completely by the advice of his most trusted aide Amit Shah, who has been camping in Uttar Pradesh for the past several months. Party president Rajnath Singh, the wily Thakur from Mirzapur, has played safe deciding to hitch on the Modi bandwagon and secure for himself a seat of comfort in the heat and dust of a tough electoral battle.
The Modi camp, on the other hand, has accepted the challenge having pitched their mascot from the most difficult terrain. BJP strategists claim that with their prime ministerial candidate standing from Varanasi, it would enhance fortunes of the party on 33-odd seats of Poorvanchal extending across two most populous states. However, on the ground BJP holds just six of these seats. There are 10 seats where the BJP has not ever opened its account and another 10 seats on which they have tasted defeat in the last two elections.
There are nine seats in the area on which BJP was on the third position in the last Lok Sabha polls and on the 5th position on Chandausi seat, which borders with the Varanasi seat. Analysts point out that even at the peak of the Ramjanambhoomi Movement, when bjp managed to get 57 seats from the state, the Poorvanchal area contributed for just 12 seats.
In the midst of the adverse situation, what Modi is looking forward to is the polarisation of votes on religious lines. While Arvind Kejriwal in his own way may be trumpeting his bugle against him, on a more serious political note the decision of Samajwadi Party leader Mulayam Singh Yadav has certainly rekindled hopes of Muslim-Yadav combination and both are politically dominant community.
In Varanasi itself BJP’s veteran Murli Manohar Joshi had managed to win last time scrapping through by just 18000 votes with BSP’s Mukhtar Ansari coming second. The poll had witnessed a five cornered fight with candidates from Samajwadi Party, Congress and Apna Dal too polling substantial votes in their favour. Should the non-BJP parties come together to oppose Modi’s candidature, for the BJP’s prime ministerial candidate it would be the case of baptism by fire.
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