New Delhi: It’s not Varun Gandhi and it might not be Yogi Adityanath. The BJP high command, with the RSS backing it, is seriously looking at the option of projecting Union minister for human resources development Smriti Irani as the party’s face for next year’s Uttar Pradesh Assembly election.
With the troika of Ms Irani, Yogi Adityanath and state unit chief Keshav Prasad Maurya, the BJP appears to want to bring back “Mandal-Kamandal” politics in the state.
The BJP is hoping to script social engineering in UP with Mr Maurya, hailing from the OBC community and Yogi Adityanath, a Thakur and firebrand exponent of Hindutva. Ms Irani, in the BJP’s scheme of things, is expected to mobilise popular support after she took on the Left student leaders in the JNU.
Smriti Irani can counter Mayawati
HRD minister Smriti Irani could be the right counter to the surge of BSP supremo Mayawati in Uttar Pradesh, sources in the BJP said.
The UP battle is expected to be among well-known political faces, including BSP chief Mayawati and state chief minister Akhilesh Yadav. “The BJP in UP lacks a face that can compare with either of the two state leaders of the BSP and Samajwadi Party. Ms Irani can rise over various factions within the party and may get the support of the state leaders,” BJP sources said.
Meanwhile, Ms Irani, as part of her regular visits to UP, will be meeting members of the BJP’s information technology cell at Amethi. She may discuss the use of social media in the 2017 poll campaign, sources said, adding Amethi could be the launch-pad for her for a larger role in state. She had lost to Congress vice-president Rahil Gandhi in 2014 polls.
