Yogi may be the poster boy for BJP’s Hindutva plank all over the country, but as far as Uttar Pradesh goes, his appeal would be centered on the performance of his government, which so far is not at all flattering.

In fact, both BJP and the chief minister are under tremendous pressure to do better as the performance of their government in the state has been beset with a number of problems, including deteriorating law and order, infant deaths in the state’s hospitals, discontent over the Modi government’s economic policies, which have seriously impeded economic activity, and administrative failures.

The BJP leadership is aware that stakes are very high for the party, which won 73 out of the 80 seats from the state in the Lok Sabha poll in 2014 and 324 seats out of total 400 in UP Assembly elections earlier this year. Also, BJP had won 11 out of the 13 mayoral posts in the 2012 civic elections. What all this means is that the pressure on the party to perform is very high.

Chief Minister Adityanath has realised that it would be the main test of his government in the last months. Right from RSS leadership to senior BJP leaders all have been highly critical of the deterioration in the law order situation as they fear that this will have an adverse effect on the poll results.

At another level, it is also going to be test for the BJP government on the issue of GST, on which a large percentage of traders have expressed their anger due to the increased tax burden the new rates have imposed on their products. Similarly, there is strong discontent among the people on the issue of monetisation and its effects on their life.

A major problem before the Yogi government in the state and the Modi government at the centre is the growing unemployment in both rural as well as urban areas, on the one hand due to the failure of the governments to initiate suitable programmes for employment generation and on the other the adverse effect of demonetisation and GST on the informal economy, which directly affects people’s lives. There is a realisation in public that both the governments have miserably failed in providing jobs.

There is general unrest among the farmers, which has manifested itself in the number of protests they have held from time to time over inadequate minimum support price for rice this year. The government also could not mount pressure on the private sugar mill owners to lift sugarcane from the farmers and offering them remunerative prices.

There is a strong anti-incumbancy factor at work in the areas represented by the 73 Lok Sabha MPs. The majority of MPs have nothing much to show to their credit by way of development activity. So much so that even the villages adopted by MPs could not show much development. It was in this context that the chief minister inaugurated several projects to speed up development just before the announcement of the civic polls.

Another cause of potential worry for the party in the state as well as in the Centre is the discontent that is likely to develop among party workers due to the heavy rush of ticket seekers. The chief minister is in consultation with senior ministers and party leaders in connection with the finalisation of lists for civic polls.

Besides Yogi Adityanath himself, other seniors leaders such as Union ministers Smriti Irani and Hema Malini have been enlisted as star campaigners for the civic polls.

As the Hindutva poster boy, the BJP would certainly like to encash on the image of Yogi Adiyanath as main campaigner to consolidate the Hindu votes. Yogi had organised a grand Deepawali event in Ayodhya and subsequently visited other important religious places such as Chitrakoot and announced a number of development schemes.

There is also realisation in the BJP circles that this time the Opposition has also taken these elections very seriously causing more problems for the ruling party. (IPA Service)