The political pundits believe that probably Modi is able to read the ground reality of western UP, which is weighing heavily against the BJP and therefore has opted to stay away from that region.
News Edition 24: Just before the elections in Uttar Pradesh were announced, Prime Minister Narendra Modi was seen everywhere in the state. He was frequently visiting Uttar Pradesh and inaugurating or laying the foundation of the projects. But once elections were announced, Modi has surprisingly stopped coming to UP and even his proposed meetings were cancelled on the pretext of ‘bad weather’.
The question now being raised in political circles is why Modi is shying away from UP, particularly western UP, where electioneering ended on Tuesday and voting is set to take place on February 10.
In the last one month, PM Modi has addressed two virtual meetings for western UP constituencies. His physical rally on February 7 in Bijnor was cancelled citing bad weather, though Delhi and Bijnor both reported sunny weather. That meeting too was addressed virtually by the Prime Minister.
Ashutosh, a political analyst, says that the PM staying away from electioneering is mysterious because he has previously addressed election meetings frequently.
The political pundits believe that Modi is probably able to sense the ground reality of western UP, which is weighing heavily against the BJP and therefore has opted to stay away from that region. Even BJP’s internal survey has predicted that BJP is losing the elections in western UP badly.
One section believes that Modi has learnt a bitter lesson from the Bengal elections where the battle turned out to be between Modi and Mamata which seriously dented his image and therefore he wants to project Yogi in UP, projecting it to be the battle between Yogi and Akhilesh.
Amarnath Agarwal, a senior leader of the Congress party says that Modi has backed out because Yogi has failed on all fronts in the state. People are now asking questions about BJP’s claims of good governance and to avoid people’s scrutiny, he is staying away from the electioneering in western UP.
Yogi, on the other hand, is the poster boy of Sangh’s Hindutva factory. This is no longer a secret that Modi never wanted Yogi to be the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh. He was forced to accept Yogi as the CM because of the pressure from RSS. Initially, it was believed that Yogi would be changed mid-way and would be replaced with a more acceptable face. But this never happened because the Sangh never agreed to it.
Earlier this year, when the word spread that Yogi is anti-OBC and Deputy CM Keshav Prasad Maurya showed his resentment in projecting Yogi as the Chief Ministerial candidate, the RSS prevailed again as it organised a ‘lunch’ at the residence of Maurya which was attended by senior Sangh leaders and those in-charge of the BJP in the state. The Sangh was able to placate Maurya, following which he gave a statement that the party would contest the assembly election under the party symbol.
Considering this background, Modi must have thought it prudent to stay away from electioneering in western UP. Another reason could be that if Yogi loses the election, he will lose political clout and would be sent back to the math of Gorakshpeeth. This may help Modi maintain his iron-grip control over the BJP.