Prasadas were Congressmen for three generations. Jitin Prasada’s father Jitendra Prasada and grandfather Jyoti Prasad were congress leaders. Now, Jitin Prasada left the party to join the BJP about eight months after the assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh. Jitin Prasada said there was no point in staying in Congress if he could not “work for our own people.”
At the age of 27, Jitin Prasada won his first Lok Sabha election in 2004. He also won the next election as Union Minister in the Congress-led UPA government. At the age of 47, Jitin Prasada left Congress, ending two-year-old speculation.
Jitin Prasada lost two Lok Sabha elections in 2014 and 2019, failed to prevail in the 2017 elections for the Uttar Pradesh assembly and achieved nothing in the 2021 elections for the West Bengal assembly as the responsible Congress party.
Still, Jitin Prasada’s move from Congress to the BJP is interpreted as a setback for the Grand Old Party led by Rahul and Sonia Gandhi and a big boost for the party, which is much at stake in the 2022 Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls.
Congress leaders – rebels, loyalists or neutrals – including party spokesmen have described the loss of Jitin Prasada as regrettable and a sad development. Sanjay Jha, who is currently considered the leader of the Rebel Congress, said: Had he been Amit Shah, he would have done the same: Jitin Prasada. poaching.
On the part of the BJP, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Interior Minister Amit Shah and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath praised Jitin Prasada and acknowledged that joining the party would benefit.
BUT HOW?
Jitin Prasada’s father Jitendra Prasada was considered the influential Brahmin face of the Congress in Uttar Pradesh. But long before Jitin Prasada entered politics, Brahmins are said to have left Congress.
By the way, after two electoral defeats for Lok Sabha in 2020, Jitin Prasada launched the Brahmin Chetna Parishad. In recent months he has tried to mobilize Brahmin voters through his Brahma Chetna Samvad – an initiative from which Congress distanced itself.
With the assembly elections only months away, the BJP and RSS are said to be concerned that the current government is opposed to the Brahmins. There are around 10-12 percent Brahmins in Uttar Pradesh, but it is believed that they influence the voting behavior of around 25 percent of voters.
Also read | Forsaken by ideals: Jitin Prasada says Congress has lost touch and has become directionless
This perception of the BJP in Uttar Pradesh has remained, even though more than half a dozen ministers are Brahmins and hold many other key positions in the party organization. The general refrain was that the Brahmins have moved away from the BJP since the days of Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Murli Manohar Joshi, and Kalraj Mishra.
The government of Yogi Adityanath, who was born Thakur before becoming an ascetic, has reportedly angered Brahmins with incidents such as meeting Kanpur-don Vikas Dubey. Abseiling in Jitin Prasada could help the BJP build a positive narrative for the Uttar Pradesh election. In fact, after Rita Bahuguna Joshi in Uttar Pradesh, Jitin Prasada is the second great Brahmin and Congress leader to join the BJP.
THEN THERE’S MAYAWATI
Mayawati is known to have developed a successful social engineering formula of Dalit-plus-Brahmin. Her victory in the 2007 elections in Uttar Pradesh was attributed to this caste calculation. Mayawati is also known for staying quiet between elections while developing favorable box arithmetic.
Dalits make up around 20 percent of the electorate in Uttar Pradesh. Mayawati’s Bahujan Samaj Party retained a portion of the vote in this zone in Uttar Pradesh despite its defeat. Since the 2017 election defeat, Mayawati has used every opportunity to woo Brahmin voters.
Try this out. In 2018, a Apple manager Vivek Tiwari was allegedly killed by two police officers in Lucknow. Mayawati turned it into a caste question. Mayawati said, “The atrocities against Brahmins have increased under the rule of the BJP.”
In 2020, Vikas Dubey, a historian, was killed in an encounter when he was transported from Madhya Pradesh to Uttar Pradesh. Mayawati said the government of Yogi Adityanath should not do anything that “scares, terrorizes or unsafe” the brahmin community in Uttar Pradesh.
“The BSP believes the entire community [Brahmins] should not be harassed or charged as a punishment for the crimes committed by any person, “Mayawati said shortly after meeting Vikas Dubey in July 2020.
In August 2020, Mayawati announced the construction of a large statue of Lord Parashuram, a Brahmin warrior priest who was known to punish Kashtriyas – known in Uttar Pradesh as Rajputs or Thakurs – in religious texts.
It is the same promise that Akhilesh Yadav’s Samajwadi Party made earlier. The Samajwadi Party has also emerged as a contender for the brahmins’ vote bank in Uttar Pradesh, and Mayawati’s contact with the community was also an attempt to meet the challenge of Akhilesh Yadav. With the inclusion of Jitin Prasada, the BJP hopes to send a positive signal for the Brahmins ahead of the Uttar Pradesh elections.
WHAT JITIN PRASADA GETS IN THE RETURN
Jitin Prasada’s political career in Congress, which is facing major challenges, especially in Uttar Pradesh, did not go in the right direction. Political observers say the organization of Congress in Uttar Pradesh has become too weak to win elections on its own.
The alliance between Congress and the Samajwadi Party has failed miserably. Jitin Prasada himself lost two Lok Sabha and one Vidhan Sabha election.
Jitin Prasada distanced himself from the Gandhi family in Congress by joining the G-23, the dissident group that is calling for organizational changes in the party. Congress apparently made him a case-type by blaming him for West Bengal, a state where the party has not done well for several decades.
In the BJP, Jitin Prasada may be hoping for a meaning similar to Himanta Biswa Sarma – who eventually became Prime Minister of Assam, Jyotiraditya Scindia – who is likely to receive a ministerial post at the center, Birender Singh and Rao Inderjit Singh – the last two became ministers in the first Narendra Modi government. Rao Inderjit Singh continues to be Minister at the Center.
From today’s perspective, Jitin Prasada’s move from Congress to the BJP looks like a symbiotic agreement from which both can benefit equally.
Also read | Why Jitin Prasada moved from Congress to BJP
Also read | There is no point in being in a party if you cannot help the people: Jitin Prasada on leaving Congress
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