At a time when the entire BJP leadership is banking on good number of seats from Uttar Pradesh to make Modi prime minister, low turn out has shocked the entire saffron brigade.

BJP had mobilized all resources and deployed as many as 29 trains and more then 6,500 buses to bring crowd from all over the state.

Against target set by man Friday of Narendra Modi and in charge of UP affairs, Amit Shah and his lieutenants of 15 lakhs people at the Rambai maidan BJP could get only two lakh persons including party workers and sympathizers. It may be mentioned here that on January 15 BSP supremo Mayawati had filled the ground and BJP rally nowhere near to it.

BJP was expecting to create wave in the state in favour of party after what they expected to be a mammoth rally of Modi in Lucknow which had sent Atal Behari Vajpayee to Lok Sabha five times.

It was all the more shocking for BJP when political experts were debating Modi would be inspired after the rally to contest from Lucknow to take legacy of former prime minister Atal Behari Vajpayee.

Nobody is buying the arguments that people could not come to Lucknow due to bad weather in Bundelkhand and western UP.

The fact remains that the manner in which Amit Shah who belongs to Gujarat, has hijacked the entire organization has antagonized senior BJP leaders.

There was hardly any participation from Lucknow in the rally which speaks for apathy of sitting MP Lalji Tandon and Mayor Dinesh Sharma. The fact remains that both of them were serious contender for party ticket from Lucknow.

But they are unhappy that they may be denied the ticket in favour of BJP national president Rajnath Singh who is looking for a safe constituency finding difficult to contest from his present seat in Ghaziabad.

Rajnath Singh had won from Ghaziabad when party had alliance with JD (U) and its leader KC Tyagi had transferred one lakh votes from Tyagi community for BJP and Amar Singh-Mulayam helped by not fielding any candidate from Samajwadi Party.

It may be noted that senior leaders of party like Lalji Tandon, considered being close to Atal Behari Vajpayee, Dr Murli Manohar Joshi and Kalraj Mishra are also unhappy as they are facing the threat of being denied party ticket for Lok Sabha polls.

Similarly prominent backward leaders like Om Prakash Singh and Vinay Katiyar are also not happy the way Amit Shah who was giving importance only to other backward leader Kalyan Singh who was not only inducted in the party but also made senior vice-president of the party.

Political observers feel that if BJP has to achieve the target of 40 plus from UP then it has work hard at grass root level and remove groupism and involve other senior leaders in the decision making process. (IPA Service)