The big fight: On battleground Uttar Pradesh
The HinduWith 80 Lok Sabha seats, Uttar Pradesh is critical in all political calculations, and more so for the Bharatiya Janata Party which on its own won 71 seats from the State in 2014 and 62 in 2019. The BJP-led National Democratic Alliance got a shot in the arm with the induction of the Rashtriya Lok Dal which commands a considerable following among the agrarian Jat community in western U.P. The Apna Dal led by Anupriya Patel, Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party led by Om Prakash Rajbhar and Nirbal Indian Shoshit Hamara Aam Dal party of Sanjay Nishad are other platforms that enable the BJP’s outreach to specific subaltern communities. The State also happens to be home to the most strident form of BJP politics and the party expects to make gains from the opening of the Ram temple in Ayodhya, and win more seats in the State than it did in 2019.