NEW DELHI: Narendra Modi is likely to contest the next Lok Sabha elections from Varanasi, a move that points to the strategy of BJP's presumptive prime ministerial candidate to help the party recapture its lost ground in the Hindi heartland.
Confirming the choice of the holiest of cities for Hindus, after months of speculation over constituencies, including Lucknow and Allahabad, a senior leader said the Gujarat chief minister was willing to step out of his comfort zone to make a larger impact by contesting from the most populous state of Uttar Pradesh, which accounts for 80 Lok Sabha seats. The constituency is currently held by former BJP president Murli Manohar Joshi, who is likely to be offered an alternative seat as he makes way for Modi.
BJP, which had won just 10 seats in Uttar Pradesh in the 2009 polls, is banking on a campaign around Modi in the state, said the leader, who did not wish to be named.
The state had swayed in BJP's favour in the 1990s when the party approached the electorate with the message of Hindutva, but it has steadily slipped out of hand.
"The upper castes, which had gravitated to other outfits, will get a new option with the BJP coming up with a credible face in the state after a long time. Modi's candidature will increase our capacity to reach out," said a BJP leader, adding that the party will also get an opportunity to flaunt Modi's identity as a leader from the Other Backward Classes. "The non-Yadav backward voters that supported the BJP in the past will also find Modi appealing," the leader said, pointing to Bihar, where the BJP is using the same ploy to undercut JD (U) leader and Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's hold over the community.
Modi, who has been struggling to live down the anti-Muslim riots under his watch in Gujarat in 2002, has fashioned his campaign around good governance and economic development. BJP's strategists, however, believe the subtext of communal and caste appeal will resonate with the party's traditional voters in not just Uttar Pradesh but the entire Hindi heartland.
Modi's candidature can be troublesome for the ruling SP, which is eyeing the entire chunk of Muslim votes, a BJP strategist said, reasoning that in a direct combat between the BJP and the Congress, the Congress could emerge as a claimant for the community's votes.
Source: EconomicTimes
Confirming the choice of the holiest of cities for Hindus, after months of speculation over constituencies, including Lucknow and Allahabad, a senior leader said the Gujarat chief minister was willing to step out of his comfort zone to make a larger impact by contesting from the most populous state of Uttar Pradesh, which accounts for 80 Lok Sabha seats. The constituency is currently held by former BJP president Murli Manohar Joshi, who is likely to be offered an alternative seat as he makes way for Modi.
BJP, which had won just 10 seats in Uttar Pradesh in the 2009 polls, is banking on a campaign around Modi in the state, said the leader, who did not wish to be named.
The state had swayed in BJP's favour in the 1990s when the party approached the electorate with the message of Hindutva, but it has steadily slipped out of hand.
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Upper Caste Voters: This was after the ascendancy of the Mulayam Singh Yadav-led Samajwadi Party and Mayawati's Bahujan Samaj Party. The Congress' meltdown that helped the BJP's growth in the last decade has been working in favour of the two regional outfits. But with Modi entering the fray in Varanasi, BJP's strategists expect the upper caste voters to return to the party fold, especially since both the SP and the Congress aggressively woo the numerically preponderant Muslim community in the constituency. |
"The upper castes, which had gravitated to other outfits, will get a new option with the BJP coming up with a credible face in the state after a long time. Modi's candidature will increase our capacity to reach out," said a BJP leader, adding that the party will also get an opportunity to flaunt Modi's identity as a leader from the Other Backward Classes. "The non-Yadav backward voters that supported the BJP in the past will also find Modi appealing," the leader said, pointing to Bihar, where the BJP is using the same ploy to undercut JD (U) leader and Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's hold over the community.
Modi, who has been struggling to live down the anti-Muslim riots under his watch in Gujarat in 2002, has fashioned his campaign around good governance and economic development. BJP's strategists, however, believe the subtext of communal and caste appeal will resonate with the party's traditional voters in not just Uttar Pradesh but the entire Hindi heartland.
Modi's candidature can be troublesome for the ruling SP, which is eyeing the entire chunk of Muslim votes, a BJP strategist said, reasoning that in a direct combat between the BJP and the Congress, the Congress could emerge as a claimant for the community's votes.
Source: EconomicTimes
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