Gameplan fails,OBCs reject BJP

It may have heaped scorn on the Congress for failing to attract Muslims with its 4.5 per cent subquota offer,but the BJPs own gameplan in Uttar Pradesh

It may have heaped scorn on the Congress for failing to attract Muslims with its 4.5 per cent subquota offer,but the BJPs own gameplan in Uttar Pradesh to woo the sizeable backward vote by deploying Lodh leader Uma Bharti as well as inducting BSP discards like Babu Singh Kushwaha and highlighting how OBCs were being denied their due has clearly not paid off.

Barring a few like Ram Saran Verma in Bisalpur,Ganga Singh Kushwaha in Fazilnagar and Vijay Bahadur Yadav in Gorakhpur,most of the 126 OBC candidates that the BJP fielded in the state the highest by any party were not able to make it to the list of 47 winners from the party. More specifically,the BJP was not able to successfully convert the high voltage campaign of injustice against OBCs into victories in Bundelkhand region with high OBC population. In playing the OBC card,the BJP calculation was primarily aimed at attracting the Lodhs and the Kushwahas into its fold.

The party has drawn blanks in Banda,Hamirpur,Chitrakoot,Lalitpur and other areas like Farukkhabad where Babu Singh Kushwaha was among those who relentlessly campaigned. Kushwaha,who addressed the largest number of rallies after Uma Bharti and Rajnath Singh,had made a sharp pitch that only the BJP was genuinely committed in protecting OBC interests.

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Kushwahas entry into the BJP was suspended only after protests by many from within the BJP fold,but there was little doubt that his induction along with Uma Bhartis deployment was part of the partys critical gameplan in the state. The BJP assessment initially had been that it would wean away the Kushwaha votes from the BSP.

The BJPs strategy to field other BSP discards like Avdesh Verma and Badshah Singh,both former ministers in the Mayawati government,also failed to yield any dividend. The party,however,explained away the defeat saying polarisation between two parties SP and BSP resulted in Congress and BJP not doing well. BJP president Nitin Gadkari also rejected the contention that Kushwahas induction was one of the reasons for the defeat.