Amit Shah takes charge in UP

Former Gujarat minister and Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi’s trusted aide BJP general secretary Amit Shah took over as in-charge of party affairs in Uttar Pradesh here on Wednesday. Party insiders say Modi could contest a Lok Sabha seat from UP, probably even from Lucknow which used to be Atal Bihari Bajpayee’s seat.

“UP will provide the foundation for the victory of the BJP-led NDA in the coming Lok Sabha election,” Shah said exuding confidence at the Lucknow airport where hundreds of BJP workers had turned up to accord him a warm welcome. Shah refused to elaborate and also did not answer questions relating to the Advani resignation episode.

The biggest challenge before Shah is to bring together the party organisation torn apart by factionalism.

The BJP has been reduced to fourth position in electoral politics in Uttar Pradesh. In the 2012 assembly election it got only 15% of the vote, and has only 10 of the 80 Lok Sabha seats. Party leaders say the BJP needs to win at least half of the 80 seats in UP if the party has to have any chance of government-formation at the Centre.

The big problem with BJP in UP is that it does not have a well-carved out base votebank like the BSP (SCs) or the Samajwadi Party (backwards).