BJP fear: Will poor Uttar Pradesh poll show sting Brand Modi?

New Delhi: As the Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls heads for the crucial make or break last two rounds of voting on March 4 and March 8, the debate raging within the BJP is on whether the party had overplayed the Modi card with party strategists worried that if the BJP failed to emerge as the single largest party, the image and charisma of  the Prime Minister would take a hit and adversely impact the party during the 2019 general elections.

The BJP in fact fell back on polarisation politics on Thursday, with Mr Amit Shah's road show at Gorakhpur passing Muslim dominated areas Kasraghat and Alinagar with the slogans - “Ek hi naara, ek hi naara, Jai Sri Ram, Jai Sri Ram,” and “Gorakhpur mein rehna hai, Yogi Yogi kehna hai,”  renting the air.  Yogi Adityanath went on record saying that if BJP came to power “Ram temple will be built in Ayodhya.”

With the Bihar debacle very much on their minds and to offset the negative effects of demonetisation, the BJP strategists had decided not to overplay PM Modi in UP. The BJP took comfort from the raging SP family feud and the Congress being in total disarray to even hold off on projecting Union Home minister Mr Rajnath Singh as the party's CM face.

But the coming together of SP-Congress which dramatically changed the electoral calculus is said to have "unnerved" the party, and the BJP apparently had "no option but to fall back on its mascot and vote catcher,  the Prime Minister, whose  rallies in the state went from 10 to 22.