Concerned BJP sweats to prop up ally

It was not without reason that the BJP had deployed an army of central ministers, top party leaders and even Prime Minister Narendra Modi to capture the eastern Uttar Pradesh citadel of the SP and the BSP.

At stake is not only the five Assembly seats in Modi’s Lok Sabha constituency of Varanasi and those being contested by the saffron party elsewhere, but also the seats allotted to its alliance partner the Apna Dal, which had faced a vertical split a few months ago.

Of the 40 seats going to polls in the last phase on Wednesday, the Apna Dal is contesting four seats, mainly in the Kurmi-dominated regions.

The Apna Dal’s support is also crucial to the BJP on seats where the Kurmi voters are in sizable numbers.

The split in the party, however, seemed to threaten to upset the BJP applecart on seats around Varanasi and the neighbouring Mirzapur district, and prompted the saffron party to deploy its own army.

Modi addressed an election rally in Rohaniya on Monday.

The Rohaniya seat was represented by Union minister Anupriya Patel before she became a Lok Sabha member.

In the bypoll there, however, the SP registered an emphatic win.

In this Assembly elections, Anupriya’s estranged mother,  Krishna Patel, is in the fray as an independent. The turf war between mother and daughter is a threat to both Anupriya and the BJP.