UP polls: BJP junks note ban mention in speeches

Party leaders finding it difficult to get people for public rallies and roadshows

Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed over 30 public rallies for the 243-member Bihar Assembly polls in October-November 2015 but he is likely to address less than half of that in the run-up to the 403-member Uttar Pradesh (UP) Assembly polls.
 
The PM launched his UP campaign by addressing a public rally in Meerut on Saturday, and followed with another one in Aligarh on Sunday.
 
In Aligarh, the PM promised a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government in UP would deliver vikas (development), which he said was an acronym for vidyut (improved power supply); kanoon (better law and order); and sadak (roads). There was only a passing reference to demonetisation.
 

As UP goes to polls on Saturday, references to Modi government’s currency ban decision have all but vanished from his, party president Amit Shah and other candidates’ speeches. This was not the case a month ago.

 
After November 8, the demonetisation announcement, the PM had addressed several rallies across north India, particularly half a dozen in UP, to reach out to people on his note ban decision. The last of these was in Lucknow on January 2 to mark the end of “50 days of pain” caused by note ban. There was a only passing reference to demonetisation in his Meerut and Aligarh speeches. Shah has also come across as keen to change the public discourse to the alleged corruption charges on opponents.

 
On December 20, Shah had issued a statement lauding his party’s performance after winning the Chandigarh municipal elections. That had come on the heels of victories in Assembly bypolls and civic and panchayat polls in Maharashtra, Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh. Then, Shah had stated the people had stamped their seal of approval on the PM’s demonetisation decision by making the party victorious in all elections after November 8.
 
Shah, in an interview to a television channel last week, disagreed that the results of the UP polls would be a referendum on note ban. He had said the results “would not be a referendum on demonetisation policy, but if the Opposition wanted to play it that way, then BJP is game for it”.

 
In UP, party leaders are finding it difficult to get people for public rallies and roadshows. On Friday, Shah’s roadshow in Meerut was cancelled, ostensibly to protest the murder of a youth in Lucknow but the party unit was skeptical that it would attract enough people. Reports of infighting among BJP workers and dissatisfaction in the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) ranks are dime a dozen. The anti-reservation remarks of RSS publicity chief Manmohan Vaidya have also been exploited by rival parties.
 
According to sources, Shah had last week warned BJP Lok Sabha members that the party was unlikely to renominate them for the 2019 elections if it fared poorly on the Assembly seats under their constituencies.

 
It is vital for BJP to bag a good number of seats in UP. The state sent 71 of the BJP’s 282 members in the Lok Sabha. A good performance will keep it in good stead for the next general elections. It is also important for BJP to improve its tally in 2018 in the Rajya Sabha, where it is in a minority, and for election to the President this July.