AAP confident of replicating Delhi result in UP 2014

A day after its office in Ghaziabad was ransacked by a group of Hindu nationalists, the Aam Aadmi Party claims its presence in UP has never been stronger, and have declared that they are ready to fight all the Lok Sabha seats.

"Our agenda here is very simple. We want to take up all the issues which have made the lives of the UP people a nightmare," says Sanjay Singh, who is in charge of the party's UP campaign. "Through our campaigns we want to show the people in UP all that is wrong with the current political scenario. We will campaign fiercely against the dynastic politics that has destroyed UP. It's shameful for Mulayam Singh's party to call themselves Samajwadi any more."

The results of the Delhi election have also given an enormous boost to AAP's efforts on the ground, claim party workers. "After we managed to get nine out of 12 reserved seats in Delhi, the support among the Dalit vote in UP has visibly strengthened," says one AAP worker from Phulpur in UP.

AFP

But the party is insistent that it will not resort to UP's usual style of caste politics. Party leader Yogendra Yadav told Firstpost that his recent remarks in support of reservation for Dalits were misreported. "Every social injustice has to be talked about with same rigour. AAP does not want to do politics the way it was practised in the 20th century. We have to be more creative than reservation and quota to address an issue like caste," he said.

Yadav's assertion is echoed by state party leaders like Singh, who says "There is no dearth of (other) issues in UP anyway. We have pointed out a few different issues for rural and urban areas separately. In the rural UP we have to talk about the agrarian issues. The farmers are paid way below the minimum support price. There is no political party that is talking about the plight of these people."

For a change, corruption may not be as big an AAP issue in rural UP. One of the AAP men in Lucknow notes, "Corruption does not figure in the villages. It will be a campaign issue in the urban centers,"

The party, however, still stands on an uncertain ground when it comes to Muslim votes. Even in Delhi, the majority Muslim votes remained with Congress. "When it comes to the Muslim votes, we still are not the first option. But the Delhi results has given confidence to the Muslim voters here as well. And the Muslim votes in UP are not with SP anymore," says Sanjay Singh. "How does one explains the 105 riots since the Akhilesh government took over."

The Aam Aadmi Party, however, was late to react to the Muzaffarnagar riots. So much so that senior leader Yogendra Yadav concedes that it might affect the parties fortunes in western UP.

And while the Muslim vote remains uncertain, the recent riots have pushed the Jat votes in the area firmly in BJP's direction. The newly put-up big BJP banners on the streets of Muzaffarnagar and Shamli are testimony to the ground gained by the BJP due to post-riot polarisation. "It was a politically motivated riot. And the best example of a successful riot. It cannot be undone now. The Hindu votes in western UP will go to BJP," said one AAP leader to Firstpost who wished not to be named.

Polarisation in the western UP has the party worried about prospects in the National Capital Region as well, since constituencies like Baghpat were deeply affected and influenced by the riots. AAP, however, claims that it will not focus on religion-driven politics, and some political observers think it may well be able to sidestep the thorny issue by focusing on the broader issue of violence.

"Both SP and BSP bred criminals here. And they cannot blame each other, but for the first time there is a political outfit that can make it an issue," says a political journalist from Gorakhpur, in eastern UP. "I cannot think of any other party than AAP that could campaign against people like Raja Bhayia and Mukhtar Ansari."

"In last 60 years all that UP has seen is Gunda Raj (governance of muscle power). After a long time there is an alternative other than the SP and BSP. So some people will definitely flock towards it," says Hari Vansh, an expert on UP politics and editor of a national daily.