BJP eyes Brahmins and West UP for revival

By replacing a ‘thakur’ state chief with a ‘brahmin’ one and that too from  western Uttar Pradesh, the BJP has dropped enough hints that it would be making an all out attempt to bring its one time core vote bank back to its fold.

The party at the same time also indicated its plan to expand its base in the ‘Jat’ dominated western region, where it has not been able to do much in the past.

Luxmikant Bajpai, who was made the BJP’s UP chief, was a four time MLA from Meerut town and is considered to be a popular leader among his community (brahmin). “The party feels that the change of guard will be able to bring back the brahmins to its fold,” said a senior BJP leader here.

“The brahmin community, which had supported the party after the Ayodhya incident, deserted it in the later years...the party had to pay a heavy price owing to the desertion,” the BJP leader said.

The party leaders also feel that after Atal Bihari Vajpayee left the political scene, the BJP found it extremely hard to garner the support of the ‘brahmin’ community, which forms roughly nine per cent of the state’s population and are a deciding factor in several assembly constituencies.

In 2007 assembly polls, the brahmins had supported the BSP while in the recently concluded assembly polls, their votes were divided between the Congress and the saffron party.

By making Luxmikant Bajpai the state chief, the BJP has also tried to assuage the feelings of the party leaders of the western region, who have always claimed that the leaders from the eastern UP get preference over them in the selection of the state president.

“The BJP has not been able to achieve much success in the western region...Bajpai may just change that as he has been active for the several decades and enjoys a clean image,” the leader said. Bajpai, however, will have his task firmly cut out. He would have to strike a balance between different factions of the party.