Even as Prime Minister Narendra Modi has taken the first steps towards firming up the BJP’s electoral campaign in Uttar Pradesh where elections are nine months away, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) is seriously considering Gorakhpur MP Yogi Adityanath as the party’s chief ministerial face.
An influential section within the RSS feels that projecting Adityanath as the BJP’s CM candidate would be a sure-shot passport to success in the upcoming UP assembly polls.
While Adityanath’s candidature would surprise many, especially when the names of HRD Minister Smriti Irani, Varun Gandhi and Keshav Maurya have also cropped up, there is no doubt that the proposed candidature of the Gorakhpur MP, who makes no bones about his communal leanings, is an out-of-the-box idea.
Lessons From Assam
A section of the RSS feels that while Modi should name Irani as the CM candidate others feel that Varun Gandhi or Maurya, an OBC who was recently appointed as the party’s new chief in UP, too should be considered.
Irrespective of which of these leaders is
finally projected as CM candidate, there is a groundswell of opinion within the
RSS that the BJP must go into the UP elections with a pre-decided CM candidate.
There is increasing conviction among BJP-RSS political strategists that definite
candidate will be electorally beneficial.
The latest example in support of this strategy
is that of Sarabnanda Sonowal who was declared as the BJP’s CM candidate for Assam
and he eventually won the election for his party.
There is a sense that if the BJP had redressed
the grievances of actor-turned-politician Shatrughan Sinha as the BJP’s CM candidate
in Bihar, the narrative there would have been vastly different.
Why Adityanath as CM Probable?
Adityanath, the
motormouth BJP MP, is a wildcard entry in the shortlist of probable CM candidates
for UP. The reasons for pitching him are not far to seek. He is a highly
polarising politician. He has a knack for stirring national controversies with controversial
remarks. He had likened Bollywood superstar Shahrukh Khan to Pakistan-based
terror fountainhead Hafiz Saeed, saying that Khan increasingly spoke like Hafiz
Saeed.
Adityanath has routinely caused embarrassments to
Modi and yet the prime minister has never publicly chided him.
The BJP won 71 of 80 Lok Sabha seats in UP in
the general elections two years ago largely by polarising the electorate. The
argument goes that if the party seeks to win UP it needs to repeat the same
tactics and no one fits the bill better than Adityanath.
Irani’s Hopes Still Alive
There is,
however, a flip side in projecting Adityanath as the CM candidate. If the BJP
were to eventually bite the bullet it runs the risk of being a divisive,
polarising party which would affect its image as well as its carefully crafted
strategy of projecting itself as a national alternative to the Congress.
The counter-argument is that even if Adityanath
delivers UP to the BJP, it may well be a Pyrrhic victory as the party may lose
the war when it comes to the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.
Therefore, the argument continues, why not go in
for a safe bet like Irani who may well fire the imagination of women voters and
appeal to the larger electorate with her star appeal. Most importantly, Irani’s
biggest USP is that she is a staunch Modi loyalist and does not pose any threat
to him.
(The writer is an independent journalist and strategic analyst who tweets @Kishkindha)
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