All the major claimants for the coveted post of the prime minister are aware of the fact that UP with 80 seats in Lok Sabha will play an important role.

Although the BJP has 10 seats in Lok Sabha from UP, the party’s national president Rajnath Singh announced in Lucknow recently that the party has fixed a target of 40 seats for 2014 polls.

It would be worth mentioning here that the upper castes, especially the Brahmins had voted for the BJP due to the Ram temple issue, but they have realised that party did nothing despite being in power for several years at the centre as well as in the state.

Now there is intense fight for the Brahmin votes amongst the Samajwadi Party, the BSP and the Congress. The BSP has taken lead in organising 32 brahmin bhaichara conferences all over the state.

The BSP supremo also addressed one such Brahmin bhaichara sammelan that was held in Lucknow on July 8, in which she launched an attack on Gujarat CM Narendra Modi.

Terming Modi as regionally and communally biased, Modi was not fit for the job of the prime minister.

Mayawati said at a time when pilgrims are stranded in Uttarakhand, Narendra Modi claimed to have rescued only Gujaratis, which showed he’s narrow-minded and regionally biased.

Besides holding 32 brahmin bhaichara sammelans in the state, BSP has also given tickets to upper caste people more than their strength in the population in order to woo more voters for 2014 Lok Sabha polls.

Similarly, Samajwadi Party is also very serious in retaining upper caste votes and has been organising caste-based sammelans to win over Brahmins, Rajputs and other important communities.

The manner in which Samajwadi Party got more then 220 seats in UP Assembly in 2012 made it clear that it got support from all major castes and communities. In order to retain support from upper castes, Samajwadi Party has announced welfare schemes

Samajwadi Party has also given prominence to Brahmins and other upper castes communities in view of 2014 poll.

Mulayam Singh Yadav and his chief minister son Akhilesh Yadav have been saying that Narendra Modi will not be able to make any impact in Uttar Pradesh. Akhilesh Yadav went to extent of saying that in UP people only knew Modinagar, not Modi.

Rahul Gandhi has also taken 2014 Lok Sabha polls as serious challenge and has decided to put his trusted lieutenant Madhusudan Mistry as the UP in charge

Since Madhusudan Mistry also belongs to Gujarat, he clearly understands Modi and Amit Shah and would be able to take on his political rivals and stop their march for centre in UP itself.

There is no doubt that Food Security measures from UPA government would boost the moral of Congress and is expected to advantage in 2014 Lok Sabha polls. (IPA Service)