BJP to counter oppn’s ‘Constitution under threat’ pitch with aggression after Rahul’s ‘traitor’ jibe

Lucknow: Congress MP Rahul Gandhi calling PM Narendra Modi and Amit Shah as “traitors” for “attacking the Constitution every day”, has prompted the saffron party to counter opposition’s “Constitution under threat” narrative more aggressively.It was a campaign,

BJP

believes, dented it in

Uttar Pradesh

during the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.A BJP functionary from UP admitted that the opposition’s pitch around the Constitution was among the key factors behind the party’s slide in the state, where caste equations remain central to electoral outcomes.“The opposition appears to be revisiting the same strategy, but we will not allow it to sway the electorate this time,” he said.State BJP president Pankaj Chaudhary was quick to hit back, accusing Congress of undermining the Constitution during the Emergency imposed in 1975. “How can they speak about the Constitution?” he said.According to BJP members, the party has been working for two years to neutralise opposition’s “misleading campaign”.BJP is expected to intensify outreach to Dalit and OBC communities after its anticipated organisational reshuffle.

UP BJP Scheduled Caste Morcha chief, Ram Chandra Kannaujia, said the party recently concluded a large-scale mobilisation 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.BJP had suffered major losses in reserved constituencies in 2024, winning only eight of the 17 SC-reserved Lok Sabha seats in Uttar Pradesh.

Of the remaining nine, seven went to the Samajwadi Party, one to its ally Congress, while the Nagina seat was won by Chandrashekhar Azad of the Azad Samaj Party.The 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, which was contesting in alliance with the SP.Political analysts said 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 prioritise 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.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”.A senior BJP neta said the party’s dominance in UP 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, Dalit and Agada — in contrast to the SP’s formulation of Pichhda, Dalit and Alpsankhyak.Apart from caste recalibration, BJP members said the party intends to continue focusing on issues like cultural identity, nationalism and religious consolidation.CM

Yogi Adityanath

has emerged as the party’s most aggressive face on the consolidation plank through his slogan “Batoge to Katoge”. After the slogan gained traction during the Haryana Assembly polls, the BJP deployed it extensively in the Nov 2024 UP Assembly byelections across nine seats. BJP credited the strategy for helping the NDA secure a 7-2 victory.