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.
