Assembly Elections 2017: How Narendra Modi won Uttar Pradesh

Make no mistake. The BJP win in Uttar Pradesh is a defining moment in Indian democracy.

In the past 25 years, never has a party so decisively controlled the levers of power in both Delhi and UP, home to 200 million and the heart of Indian politics. Rarely has a party been able to expand its social base, in such quick time, in such an unprecedented manner, across Hindu castes.

And not since the 1960s has a party exercised such dominance in national politics. The BJP was strong in the west, it was expanding in the east, but it did not have a state in the core heartland, from Delhi all the way to West Bengal, even though it was seen as a cow-belt party. That has now been addressed — and how.

Modi ki sarkar

Travelling on the ground, it is astonishing to see the admiration Narendra Modi evokes. We travelled in the aftermath of the decision on demonetisation, expecting to find anger, but saw people — in some of the poorest districts of UP — hailing him. Voters said he had delivered on what he promised, that he had taken on the rich and corrupt, that the gains accrued from the exercise would be eventually transferred to the poor.View more:-Bulk Sms Service provider

Source:-Hindustantimes

Why BJP was quick to show the door to Dayashankar Singh

The BJP swiftly expelled its Uttar Pradesh unit vice-president for his abusive remark about BSP chief Mayawati, underscoring the party’s zero tolerance towards anything that can scuttle its pro-Dalit plan ahead of the 2017 state polls.

The 44-year-old Dayashankar Singh, a former Lucknow University Students Union (LUSU) president, is an old BJP hand, and has risen through the ranks. He was promoted from a secretary to vice-president in the party unit.

But he probably failed to read the lines, and shot off his mouth, comparing Dalit leader and four-time chief minister Mayawati to a prostitute. The outrage he caused threatened to upset the BJP’s efforts to project a pro-Dalit image, especially in UP where scheduled caste and scheduled tribe people account for 23% of the state’s population.

The party’s ideological fountainhead, the RSS, and the Vishwa Hindu Parishad too have launched Dalit-outreach initiatives in the poll-bound state.

“He was close to the BJP leadership as was apparent by his promotion in the latest BJP unit in UP. But as the BSP used his remarks to accuse the party of anti-Dalit bias, the leadership acted,” a party source said.

Read| BSP leader announces reward of Rs 50 lakh for Daya Shankar Singh’s tongue

Singh, an upper case Thakur, played a key role in organising Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s May 1 function in Ballia, his native place. Modi launched the scheme to provide free cooking gas to the poor from there.

But his tongue did him in, and he failed to learn any lesson from another expulsion that preceded his. In April, the BJP had quickly expelled Madhu Mishra, a Brahmin leader, after she was accused of making anti-Dalit remarks.

BSP chief Mayawati had reacted strongly to both leaders’ comments, accusing the BJP of possessing an anti-Dalit mindset, a line the saffron brigade feared ahead of the UP polls.

In the 2012 UP polls, the Samajwadi Party made inroads into the BSP’s Dalit vote bank by winning 58 of the state’s 85 reserved assembly constituencies. But, in 2014 Lok Sabha polls, the BJP won all the 17 reserved seats.

The party’s decision to distance itself from Singh wasn’t apparently an easy one. But he gave his party little option because the BSP, itching to get back at the BJP whom it has accused of poaching its leaders, was adamant on his expulsion and arrest.

The eastern UP leader, who had apologised for his remark, was taken by surprise at the speed with which his party acted against him. “I have no clue. I am hearing of my expulsion through you,” he said over the phone on Wednesday night.

Some of Singh’s supporters protested the expulsion. But he may be gone for good, at least for now.

“By sacking him, the BJP denied BSP the advantage it was aiming for,” said Athar Siddiqui of the Centre for Objective Research and Development.
Source:-hindustantimes
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