Akhilesh Yadav’s family seats finalized
The big news of the day reported by NDTV is from the Samajwadi Party camp. The list of star campaigners for the first phase of polls in U.P announced earlier today did not include party patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav’s name. The notable absence raised questions of family unity as the state gears for general elections.
Seeing the controversy, an embarrassed SP later issued a clarification stating Mulayam Singh would indeed be a star campaigner in the forthcoming elections.
It’s no secret Mulayam Singh Yadav, and his brother Shivpal Yadav are not happy with Akhilesh Yadav’s rise and popularity within the party. While Shivpal Yadav has separated to form his own party, Mulayam Singh Yadav has stayed on and will be contesting from his old turf ‘Mainpuri.’
The Yadav family members fighting elections this year include Akhilesh Yadav – Azamgarh
- Dimple Yadav – Kannauj
- Dharmendra Yadav – Badaun
- Akshay Yadav – Firozabad
Party strongman Azam Khan will contest from Rampur constituency.
Can Yogi Adityanath’s Hindutva trump the caste math of the rest?
The Times of India reported CM Yogi Adityanath starting his campaign from Shakumbhari Dham in Saharanpur. Yogi Adityanath is expected to continue pushing the Hindutva plank as a backdrop to build upon his call for people to vote for his party in greater numbers than 2014. He seems confident of his numbers and agenda but has he got his caste arithmetic right?
U.P is a multi-ethnic, multi-cultural state where caste dominates electoral fragmentation. Caste has continued to unite or divide people as they exercise their franchise and parties that fail to calculate caste arithmetic often end up on the losing side.
It is an area where the BSP-SP-RLD combine hopes to score over BJP’s Hindutva. The Dalits and other backward classes seem to have rallied closer together to ward off the aggressive Hindutva push, especially since Yogi Adityanath became the CM in U.P. Muslims, which form a sizeable vote bank in several pockets of U.P, too have come closer together to ward off the Hindutva push. The BSP-SP-RLD combine seems to be benefitting from this. The BJP, on the other hand, is betting big on uniting the upper castes, certain farmer segments, and the traders to come together with Hindutva.
Will the gamble work for the BJP?
PM Modi to lead the Bengal push with 7 rallies
Despite stiff resistance and obstacles put out by Mamata Banerjee-led TMC in West Bengal, the BJP plans an aggressive push to campaign hard in the state with 27 rallies planned so far. BJP is very serious about its intentions of making deep inroads into Bengal and plan to bring their star campaigner PM Modi to address at least 7 of those 27 planned rallies.
BJD veteran Naveen Patnaik gearing up to play kingmaker
CM Naveen Patnaik is confident of winning all 21 Lok Sabha seats in the state as also winning the Assembly polls with a comfortable majority. Naveen Patnaik has bragging rights given his party the BJD won 20 seats in 2014 with only one seat – Sundergarh lost to BJP. The Times of India covering CM Patnaik’s rally from Nayagarh quoted the CM’s confident call for a fifth term in office. Naveen Patnaik is confident of BJD playing kingmaker in forming a coalition government at the centre though it has steered clear of openly siding any specific opposition group against the BJP.
