Uttar Pradesh Elections 2017: BJP smells surgical-strike wind in UP sails

NEW DELHI: The BJP believes last week's surgical strikes across the Line of Control have "burnished" Narendra Modi's image enough for him and the party to go into next year's elections in Uttar Pradesh and other states with a fresh dose of confidence. An old poem penned by Atal Bihari Vajpayee has been ferreted out and circulated with the underlying message that the RSS's long-cherished dream of an " akhand (monolithic) Bharat" may be realised at long last with Prime Minister Modi as the harbinger. Titled 15 August ki pukaar (Call of August 15), the poem says India's "azadi" (freedom) was partially attained because "those on whose dead bodies we placed our feet to make India free, their spirits are still roaming free as black clouds of sadness gather." In a reference to the killings that marked the transfer of population caused by Partition and the creation of Pakistan, the poem says: "As Hindus when their pain fills your ears and if you are overcome with shame, then cross the other side of the border where civilisation is wrecked to pieces." Vajpayee spells out the RSS's vision: "The day is not far, when we will make a divided India again into a monolithic India, from Gilgit to the Garo mountains we will celebrate the festival of freedom." The poem ends with a warning: "Let us gird ourselves, make sacrifices to attain that golden day, without rejoicing in whatever we have gained, because we should fix our attention on what we have lost." BJP sources said the notions of territorial "conquest", implicit in their reading of India's "dare" to cross the LoC and attack the "enemy" on its territory, and "nationalism" (" akhandBharat") would be an integral part of the poll campaign in the state elections. "Without sounding triumphant, we think Modiji will re-visit Atalji's poem and repeat some of the main thoughts it contains. This is a long battle but it has begun," a source claimed. Asked how the Sangh's "uber nationalism" would help the BJP gain seats in a state election that followed its own dynamics, a source said: "In Uttar Pradesh, our feedback is people in rural and urban areas are excited about the action Modiji took. They wanted him to do something decisive, he has delivered." The BJP claimed the surgical strikes would impact the Uttarakhand and Punjab polls too because both were border states with a large population of serving and former army men. While Parkash Singh Badal will again lead the Akali Dal-BJP alliance in Punjab, Modi will be the BJP's mascot in Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand. "We can go confident that his burnished image will bring in the votes for us," a source said, adding that no rival party in Uttar Pradesh had spoken a word against the operation. "If anything, Rahul Gandhi opened his mouth to praise the Prime Minister for the first time," a BJP official said. In Goa, defence minister Manohar Parrikar, a key figure in operationalising the strikes, will be on the poll frontline, hoping to lessen the dissensions against him. The exultation apart, BJP sources also did a reality check and recalled that in the 1999 Lok Sabha polls, held soon after the Kargil conflict, the party lost as many as 29 seats in Uttar Pradesh. In 1997, it had picked up 58 seats but in 1999, the tally came down to 29. The decline was attributed to former Uttar Pradesh chief minister Kalyan Singh's alleged "large-scale sabotage" to settle scores with Vajpayee. "No such agent provocateur or mischief-maker is visible today," a source said. -The Telegraph Calcutta