Warning Bells To Yogi Ji?

Uttar Pradesh is not just the largest state but also the state that gave a massive 71 Lok Sabha seats to the BJP in 2014 general elections – a mandate that helped Narendra Modi to emerge as the strongest Prime Minister in the recent times. Even in the state Assembly elections held last year (2017), BJP emerged as a big player by bagging huge 325 seats out of total 403 Assembly constituencies.

But that phase is passe. BJP is sharply declining in Uttar Pradesh, the downfall that is even wondering the political pundits.

Since Yogi Adityanath sworn in as the new chief minister last year, the BJP has lost four major by-polls, including in Gorakhpur and Phulpur, the strongholds of the Chief Minister and his deputy Keshav Prasad Maurya.

In the latest by election whose results were announced yesterday, the BJP lost the Kairana parliamentary seat to a candidate backed by united opposition parties SP and BSP. It also lost the Noorpur assembly constituency to the Samajwadi Party.

These successive defeats of the BJP in UP and elsewhere are denting the party image largely. Particularly, the brand Yogi Adityanath – who has been fielded by the BJP as a star campaigner even in elections outside Uttar Pradesh like in Karnataka – has also took a severe beating in recent times.

The top brass of RSS and cadre of Saffron party are now said to be deeply worrying with this poor show of the BJP in the by-elections. Besides losing seats, BJP has also lost its vast vote share in the by-polls that is raising warning bells. It’s high time, Modi-Shah must wake up to avoid further damage which one could see it coming.