New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s move to confer the Bharat Ratna on one of the tallest Jat leaders, former Prime Minister Charan Singh, is all set to transform the political dynamics of Uttar Pradesh in the BJP’s favour, particularly in the western parts of the state.
RLD leader Jayant Chaudhary’s possible move to cross over to the NDA seems to have demolished the electoral fortunes of the Opposition in this region. There are reports that influential khap panchayat leaders in western Uttar Pradesh have also backed the RLD’s decision to join the ruling NDA.
BJP insiders feel that winning the support of the Jat community will help the party to win seats in Haryana, Rajasthan, and western Uttar Pradesh. “Our leadership knows that the fate of all Lok Sabha seats of Haryana, Rajasthan, and western Uttar Pradesh is decided by the Jat community, which is crucial for the formation of the government at the Centre with a huge mandate”, a party insider said.
A senior saffron party leader believes the tie-up with Mr Chaudhary’s Rashtriya Lok Dal will help the party in western Uttar Pradesh, a region which is dominated by Jats. “The alliance with the RLD will help us to strengthen our base among Jats and it will help us to sweep all 80 Lok Sabha seats in the state in the coming Lok Sabha election,” he said.
Jats have considerable influence in a dozen Lok Sabha seats and around 40 Assembly seats in western Uttar Pradesh, where they are socially and politically dominant.
In the 2019 Lok Sabha election, the BJP won 19 of 27 seats in western Uttar Pradesh, while “Grand Alliance” of the Opposition parties won the remaining eight seats The Samajwadi Party and Bahujan Samaj Party won four seats each in western Uttar Pradesh in the last Lok Sabha polls five years ago.
“The tie-up with the RLD will immensely benefit the BJP and if it (alliance with RLD) happens, then the NDA will sweep all the seats in western Uttar Pradesh,” a BJP leader said.
In the UP Assembly election last year, the BJP had made huge gains in Western UP and had captured 94 out of the total 136 Assembly seats. Of the 16 Lok Sabha seats that the BJP lost in Uttar Pradesh, eight were from the western parts of the state.
The tie-up will also benefit the RLD, which is facing the challenge of establishing its presence in the region, after it failed to win any of the three seats, including its traditional stronghold Baghpat, it had contested in alliance with the SP and BSP in UP in 2019.
