For the Bharatiya Janata Party, the policy of demonetisation
and its after-effects may prove to be the chickens that
come home to roost. Electoral backlash is being foreseen
not only by the electorate but also by the elected representatives
of the ruling party. A meeting convened by BJP supremo
Amit Shah at the NDMC Convention Hall in Delhi on Wednesday
and attended by over 30 MPs from Uttar Pradesh warned
the party top leadership of the negative effects of demonetisation
if the ongoing cash crunch is not combated by mid-January.
Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls are scheduled to be held
around the time Goa goes to polls, and considering its positioning
on the political canvass of the country, UP could make
or break the over-ambitious policy of demonetisation. In 2014
Lok Sabha elections, riding on the Modi wave and backed by
Amit Shah’s hold in UP at the given point of time, BJP had secured
whopping 71 of the 80 seats in the State. State politics in
UP, on the other hand, has never been a cakewalk. Also, things
appear to be on the downward trajectory with almost all the
eastern UP MPs from the BJP unanimously stating that demonetisation
or ‘note bandi’ has wiped away all the brownie
points garnered by the BJP after the surgical strikes leaving the
electorate high and dry. SP, Mayawati’s Bahujan Samaj Party
and BJP’s trio Uma Bharati-Amit Shah-Rajnath Singh and Congress
led by Sheila Dixit have an uphill task. Appealing to UP
electorate may take a whole new game plan this time around.
