UP Politics: In Purvanchal, BJP can face challenge in districts like Ghazipur, Jaunpur, Mau and Azamgarh. Due to the caste equation here, BJP is in a weak position.
Lok Sabha Election 2024 BJP focus on Purvanchal for mission 80 in up UP Politics: Why is Purvanchal important for BJP’s ‘Mission 80’ in UP? Know- what does the equation here say
CM Yogi Adityanath with Prime Minister Narendra Modi ( Image Source : @myogiadityanath )
Lok Sabha Election 2024: The Bharatiya Janata Party has started preparations on a large scale for the Lok Sabha elections. While on one hand BJP is running a mass public relations campaign across the state, on the other hand the workers are being enthused through tiffin meetings. The BJP’s maximum focus is on UP because the maximum number of 80 Lok Sabha seats come from here. The party has set a target of winning all 80 seats this time. Amidst all this, the Purvanchal area of UP becomes very important, but if we look at the figures of the last elections, the party may have to struggle here.
The area of Purvanchal also becomes important for BJP because both the country’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chief Minister CM Yogi Adityanath come from here. Apart from this, three ministers of the Modi government and 13 other ministers in the Yogi government also come from Purvanchal. Despite this, a significant influence of caste is seen on the politics here. If we look at the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, despite being the Prime Minister from here, BJP had to face many challenges here. BJP had to lose many seats including Ghazipur, Ghosi where the party had won in the 2014 elections.
Why Purvanchal is important for BJP
In Purvanchal, BJP can face challenge in districts like Ghazipur, Jaunpur, Mau and Azamgarh. Due to the caste equation here, BJP is in a weak position. In the 2017 elections, the NDA’s strike rate was 81 percent, while it was 77 percent in Purvanchal, while in the 2022 assembly elections, where the NDA’s strike rate was 68 percent, it decreased to 59 percent in Purvanchal. In 2022, even the account of BJP could not be opened in 3 districts of Purvanchal. On the other hand, in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the BJP lost Azamgarh, Lalganj, Ghazipur, Ghosi and Jaunpur in Purvanchal, whereas in 2014 the party had won these seats.
Purvanchal has 21 districts and 26 Lok Sabha seats. There are 130 assembly seats in this area. 6.37 crore (2011 census) population of UP lives in this area, which is 32% of the total population. The areas of Purvanchal where BJP suffered the most or even found it difficult to open an account in the assembly is Azamgarh, where BJP lost 10 assembly seats, apart from this BJP lost 7 seats in Ghazipur, 3 seats in Kaushambi. Deputy CM Keshav Prasad Maurya himself lost the election. 5 seats in Basti, 4 seats in Mau, while BJP lost 5 out of 7 seats in Ballia district but won two, BJP won 4 out of 9 seats in Jaunpur.
Talking about the Lok Sabha elections 2014 and 2019 in Purvanchal, in 2014, BJP won 23 seats from here, while its ally Apna Dal won two seats. In this way, NDA won 25 out of 26 seats, while SP won one seat. In 2019, the SP-BSP contested the elections together against the BJP, the effect of which was seen in this area. BJP suffered a loss of 4 seats here and won 19, Apna Dal got two seats, while BSP which increased to zero won 4 seats.
In view of all these things, BJP is constantly trying to make inroads in Purvanchal. This is the reason why many big leaders including Prime Minister Narendra Modi often visit. Many development schemes were also started here. In these, Kashi Vishwanath Corridor in Varanasi, Rudraksha Center, inauguration of Kushinagar International Airport, foundation stone laying of medical college, inauguration of medical college in 7 districts of Purvanchal including Siddharthnagar, foundation stone laying of State University in Azamgarh were worked on, which led to the development of Purvanchal. Has happened.
The area of Purvanchal comes in the backward areas of UP. This is the entire Bhojpuri belt, mostly farming is done here. Purvanchal has given 5 Prime Ministers to the country, including Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, Lal Bahadur Shastri, VP Singh, Chandrashekhar and the current Prime Minister Narendra Modi. This Elata is an area with extremely backward castes where Rajbhar, Nishad and Chauhan castes are in a decisive position. In 2014, after 23 years of former PM Chandrashekhar, Purvanchal gave PM to the country, while after 29 years, after Veer Bahadur Singh, Yogi Adityanath became the CM of UP from Purvanchal in 2017.
There can be alliance between BJP and Rajbhar
BJP knows that it is very important to strengthen itself in Purvanchal to fulfill the target of Lok Sabha elections. This is the reason why BJP’s focus is on this area. On the one hand, where it has an alliance with parties like Apna Dal S and Nishad Party in this area, on the other hand, BJP is also eyeing Om Prakash Rajbhar’s Subhaspa. It is discussed that soon both the BJP may forge an alliance with Rajbhar.
