By election to nine seats in Uttar Pradesh is a contest between ideology and prestige.
While the Samajwadi Party (SP) is in the fray to prove that its PDA (Pichda, Dalit, Adivasi) formula is working after it was introduced in the Lok Sabha polls; the BJP will try to prove that it remains the first choice of voters in the state despite the Lok Sabha poll results.
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That each party sees this as a symbolically important election is borne out by the fact that all candidates—even if named in consultation with allies, are fighting elections on either the lotus or the cycle symbol.
Going by the last Vidhan Sabha elections, the SP is better placed for it had won five of these seats.
The challenge for the party is to retain that hold.
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Party president, Akhilesh Yadav has been taking on the BJP- targeting it for the violence in Bahraich and for its bulldozer politics. Yadav has said that the bulldozer is a symbol of injustice- and that the most deprived are at its receiving end. This is in keeping with the party’s casting of itself as the champion of the backwards, Dalits and Adivasis.
The BJP’s mantra is Hindu unity- taking off from UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath’s slogan ‘batenge toh katenge’ (if we are disunited we shall be decimated). The party is looking to cash in on Adityanath’s growing popularity, with the slogan also being the party’s rallying cry in Maharashtra.
The BJP is also using the election to establish its preeminent position amongst its allies. Sanjay Nishad who was insistent that his party fight the election on its symbol has fallen in line.
The normally outspoken Nishad has now been saying that the BJP is a ‘big brother’ and is looking at a ‘big plan’.
