look news india
On the political chessboard of Uttar Pradesh, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav has played a masterstroke which has surprised political pundits. The SP supremo has adopted a completely different and aggressive strategy to defeat the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the upcoming UP elections. This time Akhilesh Yadav has decided to implement the same formula in the politics of the state, which had given a massive victory to Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress in the West Bengal assembly elections. This ‘Bengal game’ of Akhilesh to destroy the strong organizational structure of BJP is going to make the election battle of Uttar Pradesh very interesting and triangular.
What is Akhilesh’s ‘Bengal Formula’?
During the West Bengal elections, Mamata Banerjee had completely pushed BJP’s narrative of nationalism on the backfoot by playing the card of ‘outsider versus local’ and regional identity. On the same lines, Akhilesh Yadav is now giving air to ‘people of UP versus external forces’ and local issues in Uttar Pradesh. This time, Samajwadi Party is putting forward its special identity of Uttar Pradesh, local employment, and regional issues in comparison to the visits of central leadership of Delhi and their agenda. This move of Akhilesh Yadav is directly part of a well-thought-out strategy to appeal to the sentiments of local voters and unite them in the name of regional pride.
Social engineering and aggressive grassroots campaigns
The second biggest part of Bengal’s game was the perfect equation of strong booth management and social engineering on the ground. This time, Akhilesh Yadav is not relying only on the traditional vote bank, rather he is doing aggressive micro-planning to bring non-Yadav OBCs and extremely backward castes into his fold. Party strategists have prepared a special team for every assembly constituency which is working to capitalize on the dissatisfaction at the local level. Just like in Bengal, TMC had gone to the Trinamool level and had direct contact with the voters, SP is also trying to strengthen its ground hold by turning ‘towards the villages’.
Preparation to breach the impenetrable fort of BJP
BJP has a very strong cadre and army of Panna Pramukhs in Uttar Pradesh, defeating which has been a big challenge for any opposition party. But this new attitude and strategic change of Akhilesh Yadav has forced even the think tank of BJP to think afresh. Political analysts believe that if Akhilesh Yadav is successful in convincing the people of Uttar Pradesh that this is a fight for their rights and identity, then it will not be easy for BJP to save this stronghold. Only time will tell how this amazing move of Akhilesh will bear fruit in this election riot of UP.