BJP cadre in UP, in Phase 7, didn’t mobilise voters

Cadre trouble in the BJP in Uttar Pradesh could create hurdles in the party’s march to its target of 272-plus. According to reports from 14 constituencies that went to the polls on Wednesday, BJP cadres have abstained from mobilising voters. Constitue-ncies where BJP cadres have been conspicuous by their absence include Lucknow, from where BJP president Rajnath Singh is a candidate, Barabanki, Unnao, Hamirpur, Banda and Kanpur (where Dr Murli Manohar Joshi is contesting).
The BJP cadre till not so long ago had been at the helm of poll management — right from campaigning to distributing voter slips and making people come out of their homes to vote.
“The cadre would take active interest in polls till the time we gave them importance and respect. This time the situation is different. In constituencies where the party high command has air-dropped candidates from other parties, the cadres are angry and sitting at home. And in other constituencies, like Lucknow, there is an air of overconfidence and so the cadres are sitting at home,” said a senior BJP leader on condition of anonymity.
The UP BJP cadre has another reason to be demoralised. “I live in Varanasi but I have nothing to do with Mr Narendra Modi’s campaign because he has chosen to rely on his teams form Gujarat. We have lived all our life in Varanasi and we are not going to take orders from people who have just landed in the city,” said a former district president of the BJP in Varanasi.
He added, interestingly, that the party leadership had marginalised almost all the former BJP UP state presidents, including Om Prakash Singh, Vinay Katiyar, Kesrinath Tripathi, Kalraj Misra and Surya Pratap Shahi, and that this was bound to have a ripple effect in several constituencies. In Lucknow, the entire campaign of BJP president Rajnath Singh has been managed by his family; former BJP MLAs from Lucknow have not been seen in the campaign.
“We were asked to take orders from Rajnath Singh’s son Pankaj Singh so we thought it better to stay at home. In any case, if the BJP president wanted us involved in his campaign, he would have called us,” said a former BJP MLA from Lucknow.