So what if BJP sweep all seats in communally-charged west UP in the LS elections, the case doesn’t seem to be the same in the assembly bypolls. BJP and SP shared two each of the four seats, where communal incidents of varied degrees happened.
`Love jihad’, the BJP leaders master key to the bypoll puzzle turned out to be an albatross around their neck and their experiment to polarize voters flopped miserably .
It became obvious that the state BJP was moving on the road to polarization when the `love Jihad’ issue subjugated in the party’s state executive meeting at Vrindavan in August.
And when star campaigner Yogi Adityanath said it would be a bypoll issue, it became all the more obvious. His communal speech in Noida invited EC ire but unrelenting Yogi continued with his venomous speeches.
Of the four West UP seats, BJP retained two – Saharanpur and Noida City and lost Thakurdwara and Bijnor to SP .
Because of polarization, BJP won these two constituencies, thought some BJP leaders. Otherwise, the results would have been more shocking.
“It’s not because polarisation didn’t get traction. BJP lost because of a paralysed organisation in West UP ,“ a BJP leader said. “Over five dozen party workers are languishing in jail following the Kaanth incident. There’s resentment in the region,“ he said.