UP Assembly Elections 2017: Last-minute scamper among BJP, BSP to fix chinks in their armour

There are more than 10 seats in western Uttar Pradesh where the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is now getting caned on the shin by voters for choosing a wrong candidate. In the first of the seven-phase Assembly elections in the state, over 2.5 crore people in 73 constituencies of western Uttar Pradesh will cast their vote on Saturday, February 11.

Also read: Modi's UP mantra: BJP in Lucknow means rich doles for the state | OPINION

Sawalkha, Muzaffarnagar, Shamli, Meerut, Mathura and Agra are some of the prominent constituencies where the BJP candidates are gasping for breath. In a closely fought battle, faulty ticket selection can play a big spoiler for the party.

"Also, the absence of a chief ministerial face is rubbing in hard now as the voter cleanses up his head fast to decide which way to go in this most crucial '24 hours before the voting' phase," Deepak Tyagi, says a taxi driver from Ghaziabad, who is all flexed up to punch the EVM tomorrow.

Tyagi is going to be at the polling booth as a BJP supporter but says, "I know many BJP supporters are not much interested in Keshav Maurya if he is the one who will be the chief minister." The party state head is seen to be lacking the necessary chutzpah and élan that would attract the masses or at least the youth. "I bet had BJP announced Rajnath Singhji as the chief ministerial candidate much floating votes would have gotten consolidated for the party. He is seen as a competent leader," he adds.

Most members in the BJP are banking on Prime Minister Narendra Modi's magic to sway in the doubtful voter. "However, in at least two constituencies in Mathura the damage seems to be irreparable where amid a decisive vote share of Jat voters, which runs into over one lakh votes, ticket has been given to a Brahmin, completely miffing the community and, in a way, forcing it away to RLD," says Ajeet Singh Balyan, a Noida-based Jat supporter of the BJP, who runs a private construction firm. "A Jat candidate here would have ensured a BJP victory."

The party is in a roller coaster tizzy. It has unleashed a quiet contact programme to iron out these three main issues as much as it can before the polling takes place on Saturday in 73 constituencies of western Uttar Pradesh. It has to now plug the damage done due to wrong ticket selection, non-projection of a chief ministerial face and keeping the reservation-thirsty Jats feel secure.

"I have been asked by the Jat MPs of the BJP to rush to Aligarh and have rounds of meetings with as many families belonging to the community as possible. They are to be assured that the party supports the Jat cause," reveals Balyan, adding that hundreds of RSS-backed contact meetings will go on through the night to mend the damages that have been caused due to wrong selection of candidates.

Through the night on Friday, hundreds of RSS-backed contact meetings will be held to curb the possible damages caused due to wrong selection of candidates. "I know of many meetings that the RSS guys are doing in the whole of western UP. One such event was organized yesterday with the regional RSS representatives in Baavli village which falls in Chhaprauli constituency," says Dr Sudhir Singh, a farmer's son from Baghpat, who runs a homeopathy clinic in Delhi.

The election-eve plans are clearly etched out for the BJP. The last-moment scampering must be done at full throttles otherwise the damage is more or less done in at least 10 seats.

The situation is similar for the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP). Since the Samajwadi Party is not much in picture in this part of UP, the ties are mainly between Prime Minister Modi's BJP and Behenji Mayawati's BSP.

And the BSP supremo is not far behind in looking for last-minute band-aid solutions. "A house contact programme was carried out by the BSP supporters on Thursday," Pushpa, a migrant labourer in Noida, says. "They will keep coming until Saturday." All the women in the Agghapur shanty where Pushpa lives admire Mayawati for having shown so much strength in this male-dominated society.

But Akhilesh is said to be popular amid women? "Not in Agghapur, where I live," she says. "We support Mayawati and those who are finding Akhilesh attractive are being attended to in these last moment contact programmes." The Mayawati-led party is working hard at the crucial time to thwart possibilities of Akhilesh becoming popular as a fighter against his corrupt uncle.

Mayawati, who revels in the party's popularity base among the Dalits, is also gaining confidence of Muslims. Mukhtar Ansari, a leader of the community who was recently brought on board by her, is already being seen as having succeeded to a great extent in the task of uniting the Muslims behind Mayawati.

A day before the area goes to polls, it clearly seems to be advantage BSP, with the party having to circumvent mainly one issue, while the BJP grapples with more in this last lap run in western UP.