UP Cabinet Expansion: Getting Battle-Ready For 2022
Editor-in-Chief of indiacommentary.com. Current Affairs analyst and political commentator.
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By Sunil Garodia
First publised on 2021-09-27 03:59:02
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Editor-in-Chief of indiacommentary.com. Current Affairs analyst and political commentator.
View all posts by this Author
As the BJP gears up for its biggest test in the UP elections in 2022 that will have a direct bearing on its prospects in the 2024 general elections, chief minister Yogi Adityanath's expansion of the cabinet was full of signals to the constituencies the party has wooed and nurtured since 2014. Yogi inducted seven new ministers. One is a Brahmin, three are from OBCs, 2 are SC and one ST. It consolidates the upper caste, OBC (non-Yadav) and SC (non-Jatav) social coalition that the BJP, under Amt Shah's astute guidance, has cultivated in the past and which had given it a major share of its votes and seats in the state. Significantly, the same caste combination was used to induct seven ministers from the state in the Union cabinet a couple of months back. The masterstroke was in inducting the recent convert Jitin Prasada, a Brahmin, as a cabinet minister. This will assuage the Brahmin vote bank and since Prasada was with the Congress earlier, influence those from the community who voted for the Congress to now think of switching to BJP.
Thus, with this double bonanza for the rainbow social coalition, the BJP is trying to fight anti-incumbency in UP by consolidating its base rather than a change of guard like it did in Gujarat. In any case, Yogi Adityanath is not Vijay Rupani. He is the third most important leader in the BJP after PM Modi and Amit Shah and is handling the state that elects 80 Lok Sabha MPs. The BJP will do all it can to strengthen his hands to sweep UP. Consolidating the caste combination is the first and the most important step in that direction. Of all states, the BJP has the best booth-level set-up in UP, even better than Gujarat, and that is the main reason it keeps sweeping the state since 2014.
In any case, the state of the opposition will provide solace to the BJP. The Congress, despite trying hard, is a spent force and is nowhere in the calculations, not even as an alliance partner. The SP and the BSP have their own problems and have not recovered from the 2017 drubbing. The BJP has made inroads in their vote banks and has even snared some of their leaders. Their finances are also not enough to contest the polls in a befitting manner. Although AAP is trying to flex its muscles, it is as yet too small a player in the state to make much of a difference in 2022. In the end, the SP might ally with the Congress and other smaller parties and there will be three-cornered fights in most constituencies and four-cornered where the AAP puts up candidates. That will be to BJP's advantage as it will divide the opposition votes.
