BJP national executive meet in Lucknow; to distance itself from Mayawati alliance taint

LUCKNOW: The Bhartiya Janta Party would be holding its national executive meet in the politically most crucial state of Uttar Pradesh after a five year gap. It comes just ahead of the assembly elections due in April 2012, with the party grappling with the erosion of its votebank and looking for relevance in the state polity.

Despite numerous experiments and attempts at caste groupings, the leadership has failed to revive either the votebank or the cadres and emerge as a contendor for power in the vast state. Figuring at the top of the leaderships mind would be send a distinct message that it would no longer seek any sort of alliance with the Bahujan Samaj Party of Mayawati.

The national executive of the party would be held from 3 to 5 May which would be attended by a galaxy of its top leaders including LK Advani, President Nitin Gadkrai, Sushma Swaraj, Arun Jaitley and all its Chief Ministers.
The timing is especially important as the party would look to set the agenda and its strategy for the UP elections which are only a few months away.

The state unit of the BJP under the newly appointed chief Surya Pratap Sahi has been trying to activate the cadre by extensively touring the state and attacking the Mayawati government on major issues. But with the past experience of BJP-BSP alliances the party is trying hard to dispel the image of it having enough of Mayawati.

One of the foremost agenda of the national executive meet would be to convey once and for all that the BJP would no longer seek to have an alliance with the BSP whether pre-poll or post poll.

The frequent alliances with the BSP had hurt the BJP cadres and a disillusioned upper caste votebank drifted away from the saffron party. With Mayawati engineering social grouping of Dalit and Brahmins in support of her party in the 2007 assembly elections, the BJP was left counting its losses.

Ever since though the party leaders have been saying that they would never enter into an alliance with BSP ever again, it has failed to convince its cadres and votebase. The three day national executive meet would seek to bury this issue so that the party can woo back its vote base and also reach out at those leaders who are disillusioned or have left the party.

Firebrand Uma Bharti whose return to the BJP has been talked about is also likely to figure during internal confabulations. With the Sushma Swaraj and Arun Jaitley differences cropping up again recently eyes would be on them too.

Also the ticket distribution strategy for UP would be chalked out so that the party candidates can gear up for the polls in advance.