WHENEVER POLLS are announced in the Hindi heartland, leaders of Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) after living in political hibernation for almost five years reach out to the electorate with the issue of Ram temple. No BJP leader ever talked of this issue till they see an election and thus they have made the Ram temple more a political issue, which keeps alive their political hopes of returning to power.

 

Here, I would like to remind my BJP friends and leaders that there is an old saying that ‘you can fool some people all the time and all people some time, but you certainly cannot fool all the people all the time’. I think the BJP leaders have completely forgotten this popular saying and hence they keep on trying to hypnotize the electorate by using the same old trick of Ram temple, which unfortunately stands exposed today and right now is not working for the party.

 

The second thing which the BJP leadership is very fond of and expect to turn things politically in their favour, is the pictorial use of former prime minister and BJP veteran Atal Behari Vajpayee in their posters and advertisement campaigns. I am afraid that will also not work for them as they used him last time in the Lok Sabha polls that resulted in the victory of Lalji Tandon from Lucknow. He got votes in the name of Atal Behari Vajpayee and unfortunately did nothing for the welfare of people.

 

Now, the BJP president Nitin Gadkari has taken the political centre-stage and has made Uttar Pradesh polls a prestige issue. In order to keep the flock together he brought in BJP firebrand leader Uma Bharati from Madhya Pradesh. This move was also made to control the damage of Lodh voters and the percentage of votes which were drifting away from the BJP towards another political party floated by another renowned Lodh leader of the state Kalyan Singh. Kalyan Singh’s Jan Kranti Party (Rashtravadi) has been consolidating the Lodh vote, which is present in a large number in many constituencies of the western Uttar Pradesh and in the Bundelkhand region from where the BJP has fielded Uma Bharati.           

 

Now after the arrival of Uma Bharati on the political scene of Uttar Pradesh, though there has been some displeasure among the senior party leaders regarding the projection of Uma Bharati as the next chief minister of the state if BJP is voted to power, the bigger question to be answered remains there-does Uma Bharati want to create history in Uttar Pradesh elections by becoming the first woman chief minister of two states?

 

It seems that this is her secret ambition. Even though party sources are mum on this issue, the firebrand BJP leader who is known for her hardcore stand on issues like Ram Mandir and Muslim quota issue knows very well that she may become the first person in India to have held the post of chief minister of two states. The other, N D Tewari was chief minister of Uttar Pradesh and then became chief minister of Uttarakhand but the hill state was carved out of Uttar Pradesh and Tewari in a way had been its chief minister.

 

The news doing the rounds in journalistic circles here is that Uma is backed by BJP president Nitin Gadkari who is bypassing all opposition to her in Uttar Pradesh.

 

Moreover in case a coalition between the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and the Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) emerges with the help of Lalji Tandon and Vinay Katiyar who helped adjust Babu Ram Kushwaha in the BJP after Mayawati was forced to expel him from the party. Uma Bharati will be going to play a crucial role in the terms and conditions of the coalition partnership.

 

Now it is obvious that the only reason that Mayawati wants a coalition or understanding with the BJP is that she wants to hang on to the post of CM, however on the flip side there is a possibility that she might agree to back Uma to prevent the Samajwadi Party from forming the next government in Uttar Pradesh. With the current trends it has become obvious that the Samajwadi Party is gaining ground in the state as an anti incumbency wave sweeps Uttar Pradesh.

 

The question is whether BJP emerges as the largest single party or the BSP? This will decide whether Uma Bharati makes history or becomes a part of political history of Uttar Pradesh.