BJP Internal Survey Concedes Trailing SP-Congress
Friday, February 17, 2017
Voting in western
Uttar Pradesh done, the initial assessment of the BJP is that the party might
not have done as well as it had hoped, leaders admit. For the upcoming phases,
the party’s primary target will be retaining the support it had gained in 2014
among non-Yadav OBCs and farmers of central and eastern UP.
Citing internal
surveys, BJP leaders now say Modi’s “image” and the “goodwill” he enjoys
remains the party’s “biggest advantage”, whereas the local leadership and the
organisation have failed to retain the trust they had won among people,
including in traditional support bases.
In 2014, 26 of the
BJP’s 28 OBC candidates had won. Keshav Prasad Maurya, the party’s state
president, is an OBC leader. If a combine of non-Jatav Dalits (Pasi and
Valmiki) and non-Yadav OBCs stand by the BJP, leaders say, “nothing can stop
the BJP from forming the government”. What the BJP is hoping against is the
possible consolidation of Muslims behind one side. The party wants to see the
Muslim vote divided between the SP-Congress and the BSP. With Mayawati having
fielded an unprecedented 97 Muslim candidates, BJP leaders are optimistic thar
Muslims will not vote en masse for the SP-Congress.
A different
calculation, however, has left them wary about the SP-Congress. The alliance
has created an impression of bringing forward and backward castes together, the
BJP leaders say, worrying if it could break into the BJP’s traditional support
base. “Brahmins and Thakurs, who have been voting for the BJP, may look at this
combination as a prospective winner.
Read
the full article: HERE
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