Ahead of UP Assembly polls, BJP checks saffron rhetoric

New Delhi: Saffron fringe elements in the BJP have been asked to hold their fire and refrain from raising communal issues in Uttar Pradesh. The BJP central leadership has asked state unit leaders to focus on law and order problems instead and link them to the “migration of Hindus” in UP. The election slogan for the party will be “Na apradh, na bhrashtachar, is baar BJP sarkar”.

One of the main reasons the party is refraining from pursuing a strong Hindutva line is feedback that “rabble-rousing” has been costing the party its middle class support in the state. BJP spin doctors, who have been observing BSP supremo Mayawati’s “silent campaign” in the state, pointed out that she is “slowly weaning away Muslims votes from the SP without, however, making any remarks that could consolidate the Hindus in the BJP’s favour”. To counter her, the BJP is covertly trying to break Ms Mayawati’s stranglehold on the dalits and Mauryas, who have always been the backbone of her social engineering.

With the Yadav community mainly behind the Samajwadi Party, Ms Mayawati’s vote bank has become the prime target of the BJP. Besides, the BJP central leadership feels “rabble-rousing” by the party’s fringe elements has been diluting the main strength of  the party and the Centre — “good governance”. The central leadership recently told hardliners “not to make remarks on communal lines as it is going against the image of the party and the government”.

The BJP is also planning to shift its Hindutva hawk, Yogi Adityanath, to a Union ministry to make him withdraw from the race to be the party’s candidate for chief minister.

Adhering to its stand of refraining from raising communal issues, the BJP plans to treat the reported migration of Hindus from places like Kairana as a “law and order problem”. Making this evident, party president Amit Shah, while addressing booth-level workers from 14 districts of western Uttar Pradesh on Thursday, targeted the SP on law and order issues while only touching upon Kairana. “Akhilesh Yadav says that the real reason for the exodus of families from Kairana was law and order. Let us believe what he says. Then, who is responsible for controlling law and order in the state? It is not being run by Barack Obama,” Mr Shah said.

Though the BJP’s main target remains the Samajwadi Party, it is also wary of the BSP slowly and silently gaining ground despite some of its dalit faces abandoning the outfit. The BJP will focus on law and order issue as it has received feedback that “Mayawati’s strong point has always been providing a good law and order system in the state”.