Amit Shah launches BJP’s Mission Yadav with lunch at party worker’s house

After making a dent into BSP’s Dalit vote-bank, the BJP has now set its eyes on wooing Yadavs of Samajwadi Party into the party fold. The party National President Amit Shah on Sunday surprised everyone by having lunch at the household of a booth-level Yadav worker on the second-day of his three-day visit to Lucknow.

During his meetings with the party office-bearers and workers, Shah called upon them to make inroads into SP’s Yadav vote-bank. To launch party’s Mission Yadav campaign, Shah took lunch at the house-hold of Sonu Yadav, a BJP booth-level worker and a member of BJPYM.

The Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, BJP UP In-charge Om Mathur, Deputy Chief Ministers Keshav Prasad Maurya, Dr Dinesh Sharma and other ministers and office-bearers also enjoyed lunch at Yadav’s house along with Shah.

In his small house at Yadav Patti, Jugauli, Yadav family served Shah and other VVIPs matar paneer, bhindi, potato, raita, rotis and rice. “We are surprised and feeling great to serve home-cooked meal to party President, Chief Minister and others,” said Sonu Yadav.

 The venue was changed at the last moment on Saturday night. Earlier, Shah was supposed to dine at a Dalit house. But, emboldened by desertions in Samajwadi Party camp, the party president shifted his lunch to a Yadav household, the most influential among backward castes.

Yadav are about 10 per cent in Uttar Pradesh and they remained by and large loyal to Samajwadi Party, founded by Mulayam Singh Yadav. The BJP has already wooed a large number of backwards castes. If Yadavs also join the party bandwagon, Shah’s dream of making party ‘invincible’ in Uttar Pradesh would nearly come true.  

The Samajwadi Party is going through difficult phase due to an ongoing family feud. After its rout in 2017 Assembly polls, the BJP is working hard to ensure a split in the SP camp. Shivpal Yadav has already met Yogi Adityanath several times. The news of Yadav joining the NDA sooner or later gained momentum after he openly voted in favour of NDA presidential nominee Ram Nath Kovind much to the annoyance of his nephew former Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav.

Keeping above in mind, Shah struck at the right moment shifting his venue from a Dalit to a Yadav. “We have been told to convince Yadavs in our neighbourhood that they will be better off in BJP than in Samajwadi Party which is a sinking ship,” confided a party leader, on condition of anonymity. He also claimed that it should not surprise anyone if next party State President comes from Yadav caste.

After taking tightening noose of BJP ministers in Yogi Adityanath Cabinet on Saturday, Shah took to task party leaders in showing laxity on strengthening organization and taking government development works to people for increasing party’s support base. Shah held a series of meetings with party and RSS functionaries and also with intellectuals on the second day of his visit to take their feedback for making a blueprint for the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.