New BJP moves are aimed at enlarging rural and urban bases

Lucknow: The three-day visit of Bharatiya Janata Party president Amit Shah was significant not only because three legislative council members of other parties joined him, as has been largely made out to be, but for some other reasons.

One of them was his lunch in the house of a Yadav worker which carries a message that is loud and clear.And the message is that the party now proposes to expand its base in the rural areas where this caste dominates in states like Bihar and Uttar Pradesh which together send 120 members to the Lok Sabha.

This caste accounts for nearly ten per cent of voters and has largely voted in favour of the Rashtriya Janata Da in Bihar and the Samajwadi Party in Uttar Pradesh. Both are the sworn-enemy of the RSS and the BJP. So, weaning them away will help the party in two ways. While it will affect their electoral fortunes, it will help the party collect additional votes.

In addition to enrolling new Yadav members in all the booths in the state, Shah has asked the party workers to launch a drive across the state to enlist new Dalit members. Dalits account for more than 21 per cent of population and have formed BSP supremo Mayawati's main support base. An in-road into her vote-bank will cause more damage to her and her party politically.

She has already suffered badly in recent assembly elections in the state and is yet to fully recover from the shock. This development must have only rubbed salt into her wounds.

In addition to enlarging its base in the rural sector, the new strategy of the BJP and the government led by it seems to be to increase the footprint in the urban areas. It has been known largely as an urban party, backed by traders and small service providers. Now, it has paid attention to small and medium firms as well. Not only will it change its old image but enlarge footprint in the urban sector.

These small and medium enterprises have been asked to come under insurance and provident fund cover. Initially their owners were opposed to the move but when they realised that the government is serious about it as it wants to clean the system they came on board.

The government too relented and extended the deadline to come under their umbrella by three months, up to June .The result is that more than 20 lakh such firms which had about one crore employees have come under it . The new employees who have benefited have now reason to remember the party.

To help the medium and large businessmen the UP government has gone a step further and decided to set up a cell in every district specially to redress the complaints of traders. These cells will be headed by senior police officers.

All this only suggest that the party is much ahead of others as far as the preparations for 2019 general elections are concerned. Also that Shah ,Modi and Yogi are working in tandem.

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