Delayed list of candidates, a rudderless campaign, lack of leaders and angry allies — all this and much more plagues the Bharatiya Janata Party in Uttar Pradesh on the eve of elections.
The party, which claims to be poised for a “grand comeback” in Uttar Pradesh, has not been able to announce candidates on 260 seats as yet, leading to considerable resentment in the party cadres.
“I am a sitting legislator but do not know if I have been re-nominated for the February elections. The party has not even assured me of a ticket so I do not know whether I should start campaigning or not,” said a sitting BJP MLA from Lucknow.
While other political parties started announcing their candidates in June and most candidates have already been campaigning for over two months, prospective candidates in the BJP have not been able to even flag off their campaign.
Besides, the BJP in UP has still not been able to finalise the direction of its campaign as yet. A section of the leadership is determined to build up an anti-Mayawati campaign while another wants the party to go soft on the BSP, keeping in mind the post-poll possibilities. Some national leaders want to raise the issue of Lokpal and FDI in the state — both issues that will not cut much ice in the present scenario. The party campaign, at the moment, lacks focus and BJP contestants do not know what issues to raise in their campaign.
The UP BJP, interestingly, faces a leadership crisis on the eve of elections.
Multiplicity of leaders at the national level and paucity of leaders at the state level is gradually spelling doom for the BJP.
“Our national leaders, including Rajnath Singh, are pre-occupied with national politics and have no time for UP. Other leaders like Kalraj Misra, Om Prakash Singh and Surya Pratap Shahi are busy with their own elections and Uma Bharti lacks appeal in the state.
Apart from this, the BJP’s failure to arrive at a seat-sharing formula with the JD (U) has added to the despair in party circles.
“The JD (U) may not have any presence in UP but an alliance would have enabled us to get Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar to campaign for us and his presence would have worked wonders in eastern UP where he is a major attraction because of the region’s proximity to Bihar,” said a BJP legislator from the region.
When contacted, a senior BJP leader from Delhi said that though these issues were presently plaguing the party, they would be resolved soon. “Our leaders have been busy with the Parliament session but very soon we will release the list of candidates and also decide upon the focus of the campaign. There is no dearth of leaders and we will prove it. The problem with allies will also be sorted out,” he said rather optimistically.