Zilla Parishad polls win and Yogi's image to help BJP reap rich political dividends

New Delhi: The Zilla Parishad election results in Uttar Pradesh leave more than one message. More so because it has come just months before the 2022 assembly polls wherein Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath would face the litmus test.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah among others have rightly given due credit for the same to Yogi Adityanath, who is certainly the Hindutva mascot in country's most populous state making a right synthesis between Hindu nationalism and development.

In the ensuing elections, of course Yogi Adityanath would be the face of the party and likes of PM Modi, Shah and BJP chief J P Nadda being star campaigners. The 'improved law and order' issue would be also highlighted as several gangsters have been eliminated or put behind bars in last four years. 

“We are clear about our electoral strategies. We will tell voters how much we have achieved in a small time due to ‘double engine’ works of both the state government under Yogi and the Modi government in the centre,” says a union minister.
Yogi has some unique records as his political legacy.
In 2005, Yogi was actively part of a re-conversion drive where 1,800 Christians were reportedly converted to Hinduism in the town of Etah in Uttar Pradesh.

He has the credit of giving BJP its prestigious Gorakhpur Lok Sabha seat repeatedly. It is true Gorakhpur was a winning constituency for four elections 1999, 2004, 2009 and 2014, underlining the unquestionable political sway of the Gorakhnath temple and its Mahant.

It is not said without good reason that religion and politics run parallel to each other in Uttar Pradesh. Hence ‘Uniform Civil Code’ could find occasional reference in BJP leaders’ campaign pitch. So would be new Triple Talaq law enacted by the Modi government.
BJP leaders are keeping eyes on political machinations of the rivals as well. Samajwadi Party is likely to be the most powerful opponent but Mayawati’s BSP can end up harming BJP the most,
Therefore, again the leadership has focused on caste equations. 

The entry of Congress Jitin Prasada, a Brahmin and the saffron party again befriending Apna Dal lawmaker Anupriya Patel are important episodes in this context.

Leaders from backward castes are again being given importance. Sizable Yadav voters have gone back to Samajwadi Party in recent months. This would be a major challenge to reverse the trend.
 
In 2017 itself, the Yogi government had created a quota within quota for the OBCs and Dalits. The move was to provide a separate quota to extremely backward castes within the 27 percent quota for the OBCs and a separate quota for Maha Dalits within the 21 percent quota for the scheduled castes.
 
A ‘Social Justice Committee’ was also set up under former judge G. Rohini to work out the separate quotas for the EBCs and Maha Dalits. The panel has submitted its report in August 2018.