Assembly elections: Battle for political legacy in Uttar Pradesh

Discontent among labarthees and livelihood issues might deny the BJP a repeat of its 2017 dream run in the state

Since the 2017 Uttar Pradesh (UP) and the 2019 Lok Sabha (LS) elections, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) assiduously raised an electoral constituency of the labarthee or beneficiaries of the Centre’s and the state government’s targeted welfare schemes and doles.

The Pradhan Mantri (PM) Awas Yojana, money for constructing toilets, the liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) connections to below-the-poverty-line families, the Jan Dhan Yojana, PM Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM-Kisan), and rations that were distributed after the onset of the pandemic were the marquee schemes from the Centre that were monitored hawk-like by the Yogi Adityanath government. These programmes are as integral a