BJP to fire all cylinders to gain max mileage in last two phases

Lucknow: The Bhartiya Janta Party, which has put up a good fight in the first four phases of assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh, has diverted all its energies towards the last two phases in view of its poor peformance in the previous assembly polls in the state.

Most of the areas in the eastern region will go to polls in these phases. Polling will be held in as many as 89 constituencies in the final two phases out of which the party had bagged only 11 seats in 2012, finishing third, after the ruling Samajwadi Party and the Bahujan Samaj Party.

The SP had got the lion's share by winning more than 50 per cent of these seats because of decline in the popularity of BSP supremo, Mayawati, among the Muslim voters who had largely supported the former.

It is one of the reasons for Mayawati going all out to woo the community and offering 100 seats out of the total 403 to it -- more than even to Dalits, her traditional supporters. It had sounded alert to other parties including the BJP as well.

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The party which is at the helm of affairs at present in the state had been victorious in 50 seats against 11 by the BJP and 14 by the BSP.

Any one out of these three which bags the maximum number of seats may lead the tally as had happened in the previous polls. Being aware,the BJP has decided to fire all cylinders in this region and give a tough fight to its two rivals.

The party mainly depends for victory on Prime Minister Narendra Modi's magic. Therefore, he will address rallies at three places in the region including Varanasi which has sent him to the Lok Sabha.

Muslim percentage in the region is not as much as the western and central regions. The community accounted for 30 to 50 per cent of the total population in some parts of these regions. Rampur and Moradabad districts have more than 50 Muslims.

Lower percentage of Muslims in the eastern region has contributed to the hope of better performance of the party. It may be favourable to the saffron brigade which has much at stake in these elections because of Presidential election and its small strength in the Rajya Sabha which has often caused much embarrassment to the party.

Besides lower percentage, likely division of Muslim votes between the SP and the BSP may also benefit the party. The BSP hopes to get their maximum support because of two reasons-- offering highest number of tickets to the community and joining of two " dabang" Muslim leaders.

Mukhtar Ansari is one of them. He holds considerable influence in two districts of the region-- Mau and Ghazipur. His entry into the party may help it win Muslim support in the area. The SP, not to lag behind, has also done much to attract the community. A division in Muslims votes is, thus, unavoidable.The BJP has pinned much hope for success on this division.

Polling for last two phases will be held on March 4 and 8.