It was a dramatic Monday for the Bharatiya Janata Party in Uttar Pradesh, when the party seemed to be on the verge of losing the support of two key Other Backward Classes leaders in the state and estranging its hardliner face, Gorakhpur MP Yogi Adityanath.

These developments, which do not augur well for the saffron party’s prospects in the crucial Hindi heartland state that goes to polls on February 11, could well have been triggered by BJP President Amit Shah’s high-handedness in the selection of candidates for the elections.

Adityanath is said to be upset because the party thwarted his ambitions to be projected as the BJP’s chief ministerial face in the state – the party may not declare one ahead of the polls – and has kept him out of candidate-selection. BJP leader Swami Prasad Maurya and ally Om Prakash Rajbhar, of the Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party, are also said to be upset that they have not been able to reach Shah to discuss candidates and seat-sharing, among other issues.

Miffed leader

At a meeting on Monday, Shah made a last-ditch attempt to console Adityanath, five-term Gorakhpur MP, but party officials said the Hindutva firebrand leader left with the impression that he mattered little to the BJP’s electoral strategy in Uttar Pradesh.

“Amit Shahji is quite sure that he alone can make party win UP elections,” Adityanath is said to have told a senior leader of the BJP after an hour-long meeting with the party president.

This was the second meeting Shah held with Adityanath in the last five days. The first meeting, on January 12, was also inconclusive.

The party released its first list of 149 candidates on Monday and plans to contest in all 403 Assembly seats in the state. Adiyanath has been insisting that his opinion be sought over the candidate selection for about 24 of the remaining seats, of which his recommendations should not be overruled in at least eight.

Of these eight seats, five fall under Adiyanath’s Gorakhpur Lok Sabha constituency and he wants three others – Nautanwa in Maharajganj district, Siddharth Nagar in Dumariaganj district and Bansgaon in Gorakhpur district – for senior office-bearers of the Hindu Yuva Vahini, the rightwing youth organisation he founded. These include Hindu Yuva Vahini’s Uttar Pradesh president Sunil Singh, its state co-ordinator Raghvendra Pratap Singh and state general secretary Ram Laxman.

Better prospects?

Monday also saw a key BJP ally showing signs of unease with Shah and seeming to drift towards Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav, who has emerged as a strong and popular leader over the last few months. Around the same time that Shah was meeting Adityanath in Delhi, BJP’s ally Om Prakash Rajbhar of Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party held secret parleys with Akhilesh Yadav in Lucknow.

This was also the day when the Uttar Pradesh chief minister scored a big win after the Election Commission ruled that the faction of the Samajwadi Party led by him enjoyed much more support than that led by his father, Mulayam Singh.

This was the culmination of a rift building up between father and son over the last year and while it’s unclear whether the two will make amends, Akhilesh Yadav’s Samajwadi Party is working out a grand secular alliance with the Congress and possibly another party. This could pose a strong counter to the BJP in the state and some allies are showing signs of crossing over.

Though a deal between Rajbhar and Akhilesh Yadav is yet to materialise, sources in Samajwadi Party said the meeting, held at the home of one of the chief minister’s friends, has increased the chances of the Bharatiya Samaj Party joining the secular front.

Rajbhar, a former leader of the Bahujan Samaj Party, is an important OBC face in the state. Last year, Amit Shah had declared that the BJP’s alliance with Rajbhar’s party, finalised in June, would be a turning point in Uttar Pradesh politics. “The BJP and the Bharatiya Samaj Party will bring the vikas rath to UP,” he had said while addressing a joint rally at Mau in eastern Uttar Pradesh on July 10. “In 2014, we got 73 [Lok Sabha] seats out 80. Then, Rajbhar-ji was not with us. Bhaiya Mulayam, please think what will happen now.”

Of no less significance are attempts by BJP leader Swami Prasad Maurya to hold talks with Akhilesh Yadav. “For the last five days, Maurya has been trying to meet Amit Shah. But he could not get an appointment,” the leader’s aide told Scroll.in. “Frustrated with the BJP, he had a telephonic conversation with Akhilesh Yadav today [Monday].”

Maurya, who had left the Bahujan Samaj Party after accusing its chief, Mayawati, of “auctioning” party tickets, joined the BJP on August 8. The defection of the OBC leader, who enjoys the support of the Maurya community, was considered a huge blow to Mayawati’s party.

Maurya’s aide added, “At the time of joining the BJP, he was assured that candidates for nearly two dozen seats would be decided on the basis of his recommendations. But Amit Shah seems to have completely forgotten his promise.”