Akhilesh's Mamata, Kejriwal pattern

It was the ex Rajya sabha LoP, Ghulam Nabi Azad who once said that, “Naya Musalman jyada pyaaz khata hai.” Meaning a newly converted Muslim eats much more onion to prove his religious zeal.

 

This is a story which comes to one’s mind when one listens to what the ex CM of UP recently stated. “Lord Krishna tells me in Dreams, I will set up Ram Rajya. ”He further added that the way to Ram Rajya is through the path of Socialism (Samajwad) and the day socialism is established, “Ram Rajya” will be set up in Uttar Pradesh.

 

 

Ofcourse, Akhilesh Yadav conveniently forgets the fact that Socialism is antithetical to Ram Rajya. Socialism requires people's rule, essentially by overthrowing the ruling class. Lord Ram was not only from the ruling class but was a King himself. Socialism requires collective identity to take center stage and to make the collective working class revolt against the collective ruling class. While Ram Rajya is essentially where individual subjects feel content. Not to mention the fact that Socialist regimes have killed millions of its own citizens unlike Ram Rajya.

 

Nevertheless, it is no longer electorally viable to speak ill of hindu gods in India. This is a shift which India has witnessed since Prime Minister Narendra Modi came to power in 2014. Since then the electoral politics of the country has shifted so much that almost all the opposition leaders are in a race to show that they are more hindu and more religious than PM Modi. Especially during assembly elections. We have seen many such examples but Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal, WB CM Mamata Banarjee are perhaps the primary examples.

 

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi in late 2017 during Gujarat assembly elections as well as, MP, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh assembly elections when he was busy ‘temple hopping’ to prove his Hinduness while his party spokespersons announced his caste publicly as “Janeudhari Brahmin”. This created a lot of noise in the media where he was ‘alleged’ to be starting a soft Hindutva narrative in the Congress by some media houses. This entire exercise resulted in a minor success in Rajasthan with a few seats short of Majority in the assembly and a complete majority in the Chhattisgarh assembly. While it failed in Gujarat and MP.

 

We also saw Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal reciting Hanuman Chalisa during assembly election 2020 and promising a trip to Ram Mandir in Ayodhya. He won Delhi assembly elections comprehensively by winning 63/70 seats.

 

We also saw CM of WB Mamata Banarjee on her ‘temple hopping’ before WB assembly elections in 2021. She also visited various temples especially before she filed her nomination Nandigram. Even though she lost her own seat of Nandigram by a small margin, she won the state with more than ⅔ majority.

 

Akhilesh Yadav might be on a path to do the same thing. After seeing Mamata Banarjee succeed in WB and Arvind Kejriwal In Delhi, his strategy could be the same. In a state with more than 20% Muslim population his (Akhilesh Yadav) attempt could be to replicate what Mamata Banarjee and Arvind Kejriwal achieved in their respective states, i.e., to sweep the entirety of Muslim votes and then either add a few Hindu Votes with such statements and temple visits or at least not make these voters too enthused to go and vote against them and in favour of BJP. He has a better chance of executing such a strategy simply because of the fact that Akhilesh Yadav holds sway over a huge majority of Yadav voters in the state, largely due to his Father’s legacy.

 

If BJP is to win UP again in 2022, they must avoid the repeat of WB and Delhi. BJP must take into account the fact that almost no Muslim voter is going to vote for BJP in any election. But if BJP wants to win UP again, they must ensure that muslim votes dont unite against them and in favor of one single party like it happened in WB and Delhi. In other words, BJP can afford to let muslims voters vote against BJP, but cannot afford it if they vote to defeat the BJP. If that happens it would be very difficult for BJP to win the election. Which is why it would serve them better if they make a Rahul Gandhi out of Akhilesh Yadav, than make a Mamata Banarjee or Arvind Kejariwal.

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