After five years in power, the BJP cannot rely only on Modi to bring in the votes. It has had to give significant space to Yogi Adityanath and his achievements  |  Photo Credit: PTI
There is a reason classic hits receive repeated play over the years. The BJP too has had to strike a balance when it comes to playing its best performing cards in the run-up to the 2022 Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections. While it rode to a colossal victory in the last election playing on the Narendra Modi card, this time it has a need to also play up Yogi Adityanath, who has served as Chief Minister for the last five years.
When Uttar Pradesh went to the polls in 2017, the BJP fell back on the formula that had given it victory in a number of Assembly elections that came after Modi’s rise to power in 2014. The party made it a practice of not naming a Chief Ministerial candidate and instead milked the PM’s popularity to the fullest. Once the election was won, a Chief Minister would be named from the party high command in New Delhi. The same pattern had applied to UP, and Yogi Adityanath, then a Lok Sabha MP from Gorakhpur was named CM.
The 2017 election had seen a number of seemingly ‘national’ issues hog the limelight instead of those specific to Uttar Pradesh. These had ranged from the achievements of the Central government led by PM Modi to relations with Pakistan, which was in the news at the time in the aftermath of the Pakistan-backed terrorist attacks on Pathankot and Uri.
Even the handful of local issues that received some attention were the tried-and-tested slogans and phrases against specific opponents. The BJP used the usual law & order factor against the incumbent Samajwadi Party government. BJP leaders also found an easy political target in the alliance between the SP and Congress, ridiculing the two young leaders — Akhilesh Yadav and Rahul Gandhi.
But 2022 is not 2017. After five years in power, the BJP cannot rely only on Modi to bring in the votes. It has had to give significant space to Adityanath and his achievements, even if only for the plausible deniability of shirking responsibility for whatever anti-incumbency may have arisen.
Yogi Adityanath, the person and his governance, have to occupy a central position in the BJP’s strategy. The Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister is now arguably the third most prominent face of the BJP in its heartland, to the extent that he was carted off to inexplicably preach healthcare to Kerala ahead of the Assembly elections there in 2021.
We could expect PM Modi and Amit Shah to be acutely aware of the importance of first securing a victory in UP, and secondly, do so with as big a seat margin as possible. The State’s MLAs are critical to the BJP’s position in the Rajya Sabha, perhaps the only house where the BJP has not been able to impose a domineering presence even at the height of its power.
No matter the urge to once again extract as much benefit as possible from Brand Modi, the BJP has played the ball straight when it comes to giving Yogi Adityanath elbow room. That has allowed it to launch attacks on the assertive politics of both the SP and the BSP. What is clear is that win or lose, the buck will not stop only in New Delhi this time. It will also feature Lucknow.