LUCKNOW: The Bhartiya Janata Party ( BJP ) is banking on a last-minute change of heart among Jats for it and a strong showing in urban centres of Western Uttar Pradesh as 2.6 Cr voters will cast their ballot on 73 seats in the all-important Phase 1 on Saturday."This phase is the most crucial for us. We aim to win at least 35-40 seats here. Things have changed in our favour here in the last few days," a senior state party leader told ET, pointing to BJP President Amit Shah's effort to mollify Jat leaders in a meeting with nearly 600 Jat representatives on February 7 night in Delhi. "It was a very constructive meeting. Shah listened to us. He agreed with us that those cases without henious charges in Haryana agitation be dropped, permanent jobs for victim families and a commission be reconstituted for our reservation demand. Jab woh haan kar rahen hain to yakin karenge hum (As Shah said yes, we will believe him). We do not issue any political fatwas but humne Jaat samaaj mein message bhej diya hai ki humari sarthak meeting hui hai (we have sent a message to Jat community of a positive meeting," Yudhvir Singh, general secretary of the All India Jat Mahasabha told ET. Jats in West UP have been up in arms against BJP over denial of reservation to Jats in Haryana.However, another major Jat outfit - Akhil Bhartiya Jat Aarakshan Sangarsh Samiti - is not impressed and its national president Yashpal Malik said it will ensure BJP faces reverses in West UP. It is leading dharnas in 19 districts of Haryana. "Nothing can be solved at the last minute. This is just damage control by Shah to mislead the Jat community. Narendra Modi gave us an assurance a year ago to consider reservation for Jats in Haryana but nothing happened. Is Shah above Modi? Jats will not support BJP till they actually get reservation or those jailed for last year's protests in Haryana are not released. The said meeting by Shah had mostly BJP workers rather than Jat representatives and was done in desperation. I am told there was lot of hooting in the meeting and Shah admitted that Jats are not with BJP this time," Malik told ET.Senior BJP leaders involved in the fire-fighting said party believes Jats will ultimately vote for the party. "What alternative do Jats have? They won't go with BSP or SP-Congress which is openly wooing Muslims when the issue of polarisation very much still exists in West UP. The choice for Jats could have been RLD but Jats know RLD is extremely weakened and it won't be in any position to form the government and will ally with SP-Congress. Jats may have been angry and wanted to be listened to. Now, on voting day, they will still choose BJP," a senior party leader part of the negotiations told ET. Home Minister Rajnath Singh in Lucknow on Friday said the Haryana government was "seriously looking into a solution" for the Jat reservation issue and said BJPs opponents were spreading misinformation of Jat disillusionment with BJP.After Shah's meeting, BJPs leading Jat face in West UP, Sanjeev Baliyan and Haryana Jat leaders and Ministers there, Captain Abhimanyu Singh and O.P. Dhankar, together held Panchayat meetings with regional Jat leaders in Meerut on Thursday. "A new Chairman is being appointed of National Commission for Backward Castes and Centre will speed up the constitutional process for reservation to Jats. It is the BJP government which gave reservation to Jats in UP and Rajasthan," Baliyan told ET. Sunil Bansal, the BJPs state general secretary, told ET that BJP had given 15 tickets to Jat candidates in Phase 1, including on all five seats in Baghpat. "That shows we are with the Jats. On the other hand, RLD has given a bulk of tickets to non-Jats. Jat voters won't get divided," Bansal said. BJP leaders said polarisation is a "strong sentiment" in West UP with Jats wishing for 800-odd Jat boys in jails for 2013 Muzzafarnagar riots to be released. "They know only a BJP government will do that," a party leader said.BJP, which won only 10 out of the 73 seats in Phase 1 during the 2012 polls, sees this area to be its stronghold now after winning 13 out of the 14 Lok Sabha seats here in 2014 on the back of the wholesale support by Jats after the Muzzafarnagar riots. BSP had won 25 seats here in 2012, SP won 24, Congress won 5 while RLD had won 9. "Phase 1 is most crucial for us. If we do well here, our momentum will build. We won 10 seats in 2012 but we were No 2 in 10 seats too. Like we lost the Mathura seat by just 500 votes but this time BJP national secretary Shrikant Sharma has been fielded from there. We aim to sweep districts of Meerut, Agra, Noida and Ghaziabad which have 20 seats between them. Bad law and order is a major issue in these areas and we have driven the message home," a senior state BJP leader said. Modi hence chose Meerut and Ghaziabad for his rallies recently. The saffron party is also enthused by its own ground feedback of split in Muslim votes among the SP-Congress alliance and BSP.