The matters in Uttar Pradesh concerning elections are not going much in favour of Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) even as Samajwadi Party (SP) appears to be gaining more ground, particularly in phase- one& two of the election recently held. If experts are to be believed, much of the damage to the BJP vote bank has already been done in these two phases, while at the same time, the party seems to have regained much of lost ground in phase- three & four.
There are several reasons due to which BJP might have witnessed a dent in its vote bank. The major issue has remained that of farmers who have somehow identified what has been termed as a ‘wrong track’ of the BJP-led Government concerning their interests. Even though, both the farm laws were repealed by the Government after months of agitation, there are issues the farmers are worried about and are in a way trying to witness a change in Governance in the state.
On the other hand, Akhilesh went ahead of Yadavs and has tried to woo non-Yadavs and other OBC categories—done apart from an aggressive and effective outreach to Muslims in the state accounting for over 19% of the total population of the state.
He has also made it a point to raise issues pertaining to the economy, unemployment and farmers. However, the main thrust in the progress of capturing anti-BJP space by the SP and its allies has been the farmer’s protest majorly.
As of now, it appears that the UP election is not a race, rather a direct fight between BJP and SP along with its allies on the issues that are real and have got immense implications, potent to turn the tide. In contrast, the electioneering of BJP has remained glued to issues that apparently do not have any relevance on the political landscape of UP.
However, on the contrary, the upper caste vote bank, some of the Muslim vote bank too, has remained intact for BJP as the opposition has not been able to seep in there while it continued to remain focused on other sections that always play a decisive role in elections, particular, when it comes to elections is a state like UP.
At present, the balance has been disturbed, with considerable damage to the BJP vote bank in the state by what can be termed as a robust opposition. The observers state that even though SP along with its allies have created major in-roads, the fight remains to be quite close and interesting. Conversely, while BJP will do everything possible to retain power in the state, what remains to be seen is whether SP along with its other key allies would be able to make any difference at all.
