In March 2019, a month earlier than the Lok Sabha polls, Congress General Secretary in-charge for Uttar Pradesh, Priyanka Gandhi had provide you with an formidable thought of bringing in a preferred Brahmin face as a celebration candidate, towards BJP stalwart Rajnath Singh in Lucknow. Her man of alternative for this strategically necessary political gamble was Jitin Prasada.
A person of sophistication, city attraction, a preferred Brahmin face and two-term Union Minister, Jitin’s candidature was seen as a grasp stroke by the Congress occasion. One that even in it’s defeat may have despatched a robust message to the Brahmin voters throughout the state.
Jitin, nevertheless refused to contest. Why Jitin declined to go by Congress management’s plans shouldn’t be clear. Sources near Jitin say, the chief felt extra comfy along with his conventional seat of Dhaurara and didn’t see any sound political rationale in shifting to Lucknow.
The different facet claimed, Jitin didn’t wish to annoy Rajnath Singh and the BJP. Political speculations of Jitin being in contact with the high brass of the Bharatiya Janata Party have been additionally ripe at that cut-off date.
Eventually, Jitin went on to contest from Dhaurara seat and suffered a second consecutive defeat. He polled third on the seat he had represented in 2009. His occasion too touched the second lowest ever in electoral historical past of Uttar Pradesh, with occasion veteran Sonia Gandhi being the solely candidate to win from Raebareli. The worst being, in the publish emergency elections of 1977, when Congress had misplaced on all 85 seats of the undivided Uttar Pradesh.
In days that adopted, electoral mud did settle, however a belief deficit between the Gandhis and Jitin Prasada got here to exist. Jitin’s first open signal of dissent was when he grew to become one in all the signatories on the letter written to Sonia Gandhi by 23 senior leaders demanding an organisational change inside the occasion. Since then, until now, when Jitin Prsada has lastly left Congress, solely to affix BJP, it’s a narrative of missing belief, seek for a brand new political discipline and rising new management inside the UP state Congress.
A senior occasion functionary, thought of a high member of staff Priyanka, not prepared to be quoted, says, “In Uttar Pradesh, occasion organisation and management is present process a revolutionary change. But it doesn’t signifies that outdated and established faces are being ignored. Jitin or for that matter every other stalwart wants to grasp that politics can’t be a static affair, management and obligations change with time.”
Clearly, Congress leadership is not surprised by Jitin’s move. With the leadership changes in the UP Congress, under new president Ajay Kumar Lallu and strong intervention at the strategy level by team Priyanka, led by former JNU student union president Sandeep Singh, political calculations of many an old guards within the state Congress had been disturbed. This also included Jitin Prasada.
After failing to ensure an electoral win in Lok Sabha elections of 2014 and then in 2019, sources say Jitin was aspiring for the post of UP Congress president. His aspirations for a bigger role within the party were not fulfilled, leaving the young leader fuming and trying to carve out an independent image as a Brahmin leader through the lesser known ‘Brahmin Chetna Parishad’.
Jitin’s move now, therefore, speaks a lot. Just eight months ahead of the crucial assembly elections and Yogi Adityanath-led government increasingly being under attack on the issue of alleged Brahmin discontent, Jitin will clearly be used as ‘big Brahmin’ face in the state, where politics is so defined by the castes. Jitin’s saffron avatar also goes on to counter the negative perception that was probably built on the issue of governance during the deadly second wave of coronavirus pandemic, when government has come under immense criticism over large number of deaths, oxygen crises and crippled medical support system.
On Wednesday, immediately after his joining at the BJP national headquarters in Delhi, neither Jitin nor Union Minster Piyush Goel, who was coordinating the joining, left any doubts about the possible future role. While Goel greatly emphasized upon Jitin’s “commitment” , “struggles” and “sacrifices” for the individuals of Uttar Pradesh, Jitin advised the ready journalists that “politics is about serving the individuals you’re employed for and at the second the solely occasion by means of which you are able to do so is the BJP.” No doubt there is an important role carved out for the young leader in BJP’s scheme of things and that too in upcoming assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh.
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