Lucknow: Congress MP Rahul Gandhi’s labeling of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah as “traitors” for allegedly “attacking the Constitution every day” has prompted the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to intensify its efforts to counter the opposition’s “Constitution under threat” narrative. The BJP believes this narrative damaged its performance in Uttar Pradesh during the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
BJP’s Assessment of the 2024 Setback
A BJP functionary from Uttar Pradesh conceded that the opposition’s emphasis on constitutional protection was among the key factors behind the party’s decline in the state, where caste dynamics heavily influence electoral outcomes. “The opposition appears to be revisiting the same strategy, but we will not allow it to sway the electorate this time,” the functionary said.
State BJP president Pankaj Chaudhary swiftly retaliated, accusing the Congress of undermining the Constitution during the Emergency imposed in 1975. “How can they speak about the Constitution?” he questioned.
According to BJP members, the party has been working for two years to neutralize the opposition’s “misleading campaign.” The BJP is expected to intensify outreach to Dalit and Other Backward Class (OBC) communities following an anticipated organizational reshuffle.
Dalit and OBC Outreach Initiatives
Ram Chandra Kannaujia, chief of the Uttar Pradesh BJP Scheduled Caste Morcha, revealed that the party recently concluded a large-scale mobilization campaign in Dalit-dominated areas across all 403 Assembly constituencies. He added that the BJP also conducted a “Basti Sampark Abhiyan” in thousands of Dalit-majority villages over the past one-and-a-half years, following the setback in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
The BJP suffered significant losses in reserved constituencies in 2024, winning only eight of the 17 Scheduled Caste (SC)-reserved Lok Sabha seats in Uttar Pradesh. Of the remaining nine seats, seven went to the Samajwadi Party (SP), one to its ally Congress, and the Nagina seat was won by Chandrashekhar Azad of the Azad Samaj Party.
This result marked a sharp contrast from 2014, when the BJP swept all 17 reserved seats. In 2019, the BJP won 14 such seats, while ally Apna Dal (Sonelal) secured Robertsganj. The BJP then lost Nagina and Lalganj to the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), which was contesting in alliance with the SP.
Opposition’s Successful Campaign Strategy
Political analysts noted that the opposition’s “Samvidhan Khatre Mein Hai” campaign successfully linked constitutional protection with the preservation of caste-based reservations. “In the process, the opposition transformed a legal and constitutional debate into an existential issue tied to livelihood and social security. It disrupted BJP’s Hindutva consolidation strategy and shifted the discourse back towards social justice politics,” said an analyst.
According to BJP sources, the campaign created a wedge among caste groups by pushing OBCs and Dalits to prioritize caste identity and reservation security over a broader Hindu identity. This, they believe, contributed to sections of these communities drifting back towards the opposition bloc.
The BJP’s own “400 paar” campaign slogan enabled the opposition to amplify fears at the grassroots that constitutional safeguards and reservations could come under threat. Sources acknowledged that allies like the Nishad Party, Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party, and Apna Dal (S) faced pressure from their support bases after the opposition framed the BJP as “anti-reservation.”
BJP’s Caste Coalition and Counter-Strategy
A senior BJP leader stated that the party’s dominance in Uttar Pradesh since 2014 rested on a carefully built coalition of upper castes, non-Yadav OBCs, and non-Jatav Dalits. The strategy aimed to isolate the SP’s Yadav and the BSP’s Jatav support bases. Kannaujia described this as the BJP’s own version of “PDA” — Pichhda (backward), Dalit, and Agada (forward) — in contrast to the SP’s formulation of Pichhda, Dalit, and Alpsankhyak (minority).
Apart from caste recalibration, BJP members said the party intends to continue focusing on issues like cultural identity, nationalism, and religious consolidation. Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has emerged as the party’s most aggressive face on the consolidation plank through his slogan “Batoge to Katoge” (Divided we will be cut). After the slogan gained traction during the Haryana Assembly polls, the BJP deployed it extensively in the November 2024 Uttar Pradesh Assembly byelections across nine seats. The BJP credited the strategy for helping the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) secure a 7-2 victory.
