Subsequently there were two short lived BJP governments in the state, one led by Ram Prakash Gupta, an old Jan Sangh hand, who was in the CM chair for 351 days, followed by Rajnath Singh who ruled for little over a year till March 2002.
After the virtual sweep of UP Lok Sabha seats in the Modi powered wave of 2014, it makes absolute sense for BJP to have ambitions to capture the state where elections are due in the early part of next year. But since demonetisation has hit its own base hard, the party is currently on unknown territory.
An invented narrative with communal overtones could be created but currently all communities and castes stand side by side in queues. If there is actual delivery of cash into zero balance bank accounts, plus packages to bail out the unorganised sector, farmers and traders, it could still be advantage BJP.
But on current realities it would be fair to say that surprisingly, it is the incumbent regime of Akhilesh Yadav that seems to have a small edge in the triangular battle. There are multiple reasons for this. Presuming that both BSP and SP have found huge wads of notes turn to dust, the difference is that SP is in government, a definite vantage position to change currency and raise fresh funds.
