Dimple, Priyanka poster girls in UP; Congress, SP alliance on cards

New Delhi: With posters of Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister’s wife Dimple Yadav alongside Priyanka Gandhi appearing across the state, clearly indicating that the SP and the Congress are inching closer to firm up an alliance, the BJP has begun to re-work its election strategy.

The saffronites intends to tone down their rhetoric against the BSP and focus mainly on targeting Akhilesh Yadav. Some BJP functionaries have also been asked to open a backchannel with the BSP, “if possible.”

The BSP has so far shown no inclination of any post-poll allaince with the BJP.
While speculation ran rife that the Congress and Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) could be offered around 135 of the 403 seats by the SP, uncertainty prevailed in the BJP camp.

The BJP, which has begun the process of selecting candidates, seems somewhat apprehensive about the party's prospects in UP following the possibility of a grand alliance of "secular" parties.

Though the BJP was trying to take advantage of the family feud in SP, UP chief minister Akhilesh Yadav has emerged as “enemy number one” for the party.

A senior BJP functionary from UP, who has been providing regular feedback to the party high command, said, “By going against the old guard, Akhilesh has managed to demolish the anti-incumbency against his government.” The BJP functionary also said that the “failure” to project a chief ministerial candidate in Uttar Pradesh could hit the party hard.

The BJP’s poll mascot, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, will be holding nearly 12 rallies in Uttar Pradesh before the first phase of polls on February 11.
On the other side, Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar will be used by the proposed grand alliance to consolidate the Kurmi vote bank.

The proposed “secular" grand alliance would include the SP (Akhilesh faction), Congress, RLD, JD(U), Peace Party, Rashtriya Janta Dal, Sanjay Nishad’s Party, Rajbhar Party and the dissident faction of Apna Dal led by Krishna Patel, mother of Union minister Anupriya Patel.

The BJP, which has been banking heavily on the Muslim-Yadav vote bank getting split between Congress-BSP-SP, is wary of the coming together of Akhilesh Yadav-Rahul Gandhi-Jayant Chowdhury (son of RLD leader, Ajit Singh) as would consolidate Muslim-Yadav-Jaat vote banks in favour of the grand alliance. "If this happens, then it's a tough call for us," the BJP functionary said.

Despite Prime Minister Modi leading the charge in UP, the functionary said that the BJP has "no one to match the stature of either Akhilesh Yadav or Mayawati". No projecting a chief ministerial candidate has also hurt the "advantages we reportedly gained by demolishing caste politics with the demonetisation move", he said.  

As the BJP continues to fret over its prospects UP, the Dimple-Priyanka posters with the slogan - "Mahilaon ka bajega danka" (women will lead from the front and emerge victorious) - seem to have energised Congress workers in the state.

The Congress, which has been decimated in UP, was eagerly awaiting an alliance with the SP. It’s learnt that nearly 135 seats left by the SP would have to be shared between parties which would form the proposed grand alliance.

Despite talks of seat sharing between the Congress and SP, the main problem areas are the constituencies where both the parties came second in 2012 Assembly polls. Two such constituencies are Banda and Aligarh.

While Congress came second in Aligarh, SP came second in Banda. "All these issues will be ironed out once we decide to join hands," a Congress leader said.