LUCKNOW: Polarise voters in West Uttar Pradesh on issues like Kairana exodus and Muzzafarnagar riots, cash in on Narendra Modi’s development image in Poorvanchal (East UP), expose failing law and order as a universal theme across UP’s six regions, target caste vote-bank pie of almost 50% which is larger than by any other party and in the process repeat at least 60% of its 2014 Lok Sabha performance where it was Number 1 in 337 assembly constituencies -- this is the BJP’s big strategy to wrest Uttar Pradesh.ET spoke to over a dozen BJP leaders on the ground to piece together BJP’s region-wise game plan in UP. The party has divided UP into six regions - Western, Braj, Kanpur, Awadh, Gorakhpur and Kashi. It aims at sweeping three of these regions -- Western, Kashi and Gorakhpur (last two comprise Poorvanchal)-- that account for 204 out of 403 constituencies in UP. On the back of Modi’s appeal and RSS footsoldiers supplementing a unparalleled in scale campaign, the ongoing feud in the Samajwadi Party seems to be added impetus to BJP hopes despite the ‘setback’ caused by demonetisation.Besides having full-fledged units in each of the six regions headed by a regional president, BJP has also posted co-in charges for the six regions from outside UP for an all-round perspective.A RSS background pointperson is the ‘Mahamamtri, Sangathan’ for each region too. “All of them are part of the ticket selection process. Over 8,000 applicants for tickets, almost 20 for each seat, have been put through a six-level screening process and at least three surveys to recommend the best shortlist to the BJP Central Parliamentary Board,” a senior UP BJP leader told ET.BJP is glad that the election schedule is broadly also divided like its six regions and begins from West UP to end in East UP - as was the case in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls that the party swept with 73 out of 80 seats. “UP ka election hawa ka hai...es baar bhi hawa BJP ke liye Paschim se udkar poorvanchal tak jayegi,” Vijay Bahadur Pathak, BJP UP general secretary said. The party said it is targetting the biggest votebase of nearly half the electorate unlike other parties.“Hum 50% vote ki rajneeti kar rahen hain - 10% Brahmin vote, 33% non-Yadav OBC vote and 7% non-Jatav Dalit vote. SP is only doing rajneeti of about 40% voters --20% Yadavs and 19% Muslims. BSP is only doing rajneeti of 30% voters -13% Jatavs and 19% Muslims,” a senior leader said, on condition of anonymity. BJP is also fighting on some universal issues across UP - like failing law and order and the “fake” development pitch of SP.“Every major city and region has 2-3 major law and order incidents - be it the Bundelkhand rape case or recent broad daylight murder of a prominent doctor in Allahabad. There is no district where a SP neta and his goondagardi is not a problem for the common man,” Pathak said. BJP spokesperson Rakesh Tripathi said all “so-called development projects like Metro and Expressway were half-baked and are being exposed”.West UP region of nearly 70 seats that goes to polls in the first phase is crucial for BJP. While officially BJP denies any attempt at polarisation, at least two state BJP leaders told ET on the condition of anonymity that religious polarisation was very much the plan.“The issue of Kairana exodus of Hindus has been raised by no less than Home Minister Rajnath Singh. Accused in Muzzafarnagar riots, Sanjeev Baliyan and Suresh Rana, were made a Central Minister and BJP state vice-president respectively. Jat and Muslims divide is a reality in West UP and it is a polarised region,” a party leader told ET.Baliyan and Rana led the BJP parivartan yatra in the West UP region, openly threatening to send Azam Khan to jail and free Hindu youth languishing in jails for the Muzzafarnagar riots. The PM is expected to kick off a set of 10 rallies from Muzzafarnagar. How Jats vote after demonetisation and denial of reservation would determine how BJP starts off.The two Poorvanchal regions -Kashi and Gorakhpur - which together have nearly 130 seats between them -- will see the development pitch to cash in on popularity of Modi, the MP from Varanasi. The party will compare this to “poor performance” on development of Mulayam Singh Yadav in his constituency Azamgarh, the BJP Gorakhpur region president Upendra Shukla told ET.Poorvanchal is peculiar - while BJP has always been strong in Gorakhpur region due to influence of Yogi Adityanath, it was weak in the Kashi region. Both regions have large presence of the 34% non-Yadav OBCs that BJP is targeting - BJP appointed a person from this community from Poorvanchal - Keshav Prasad Maurya. “Modiji contesting from Varanasi has changed the narrative.Poorvanchal mein development ki bhookh hai aur logon ko pata hai sirf Modi ji hi isse pura kar sakte hain,” BJP Kashi Region President Laxman Acharya said.“SP and BSP did nothing for Poorvanchal in all these years. But in 2.5 years under Modi, Gorakhpur was granted an AIIMS, highways are being four-laned and new trains and railway lines granted. Mulayam as the Azamgarh MLA and with his son as Chief Minister have been able to do nothing for even his constituency. We filled up the ITI Maidan of Azamgarh with record crowd for Amit Shah’s rally in November. The writing is on the wall,” Shukla said.BJP is confident of a good showing in the Kanpur region too of 52 seats including Bundelkhand. “SP has failed here on issues of water scarcity and illegal mining. Gangster Atiq Ahmed has been given the ticket by SP from Kanpur. This will cost them,” the BJP Kanpur region president Manvendra Singh told ET.The largest region of Awadh with 82 seats and Braj region with 65 seats -which have many SP stronghold areas - are the biggest challenge for BJP. The party won just 6 out of 82 seats in Awadh in 2012 polls.In Braj region which has 65 seats, BJP is harping on “excesses of Yadavs” in areas like Badaun and Mainpuri from where SP leaders Dharmendra Yadav and Tej Pratap Yadav are MPs, says BJP Braj regional president B L Verma. However, there is admission that Akhilesh Yadav is popular in the Awadh and Braj regions through which his new Agra-Lucknow expressway passes and which is also the traditional stronghold of the Yadav family like the Etawah and Kannauj districts.“The new expressway is still incomplete. Lucknow Metro has not started but the whole capital is dug up. No project is complete,” says BJPs Awadh region president Mukut Bihari Verma. But BJP has fared badly even in areas like Ayodhya and Lucknow in Awadh in past assembly elections and relied on ‘outsider candidates’ to win few seats it did.Four faces in Rajnath Singh (Thakur), Kalraj Mishra (Brahmin), Keshav Maurya (Non-Yadav OBC) and Uma Bharti (Lodh) - have been showcased with an aim of targeting the 50% voter pie. BSP’s major brahmin face Brajesh Pathak was inducted along with Congress brahmin face, Rita Bahaguna Joshi. From the non-Yadav OBC faces, prominent face Swami Prasad Maurya was inducted from BSP while Anupriya Patel was inducted into the Council of Ministers.“In the 86 reserved assembly seats, we won only 3 seats in 2012 but won all 17 reserved Lok Sabha constituencies in 2014 Lok Sabha polls,” a BJP leader said. On the 19% Muslim vote, BJP is banking mainly on division of Muslim votes between SP and BSP given feud in the Yadav family. “Even Azam Khan has conceded that if someone is most stressed by SP feud, it is Muslims. This is music to our ears,” the senior BJP leader said.