BJP national meet to search for plank in poll-bound UP

LUCKNOW: The BJP will be holding its national executive meet in Uttar Pradesh after a gap of five years. The three-day meet, which is scheduled to be held from Friday, has gained importance as the state Assembly election is due in April next year.

The party is grappling with the erosion of its vote-bank and is looking for relevance in the state polity.

Despite numerous experiments and attempts at caste groupings, the party has failed to revive either the vote-bank or the cadres. The party is likely to send a clear message that it will not seek any alliance with Mayawati-led Bahujan Samaj Party .

The national executive will be attended by top party leaders, including LK Advani, Nitin Gadkrai, Sushma Swaraj, Arun Jaitley and all its chief ministers.

The state unit of the BJP, under the newly-appointed chief Surya Pratap Sahi, has been trying to energise its cadre by extensively touring the state and attacking the Mayawati government on major issues. One of the foremost agenda of the national executive meet will 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 past alliances with the BSP had hurt the BJP cadres and a disillusioned upper caste vote-bank 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, it has failed to convince its cadres and votebase. The three-day 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 leader Uma Bharti is also likely to figure during internal confabulations. With the news of differences between Sushma Swaraj and Arun Jaitley resurfacing again recently, eyes would be on them too.

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