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| The same old story continues in UP | | It is a do-or-die situation for all parties | | B L KAK
NEW DELHI Nov 18
Once again, all eyes are focused on Uttar Pradesh. Why? Answer: The just-concluded civil election is precursor to the trends of the election to the State Assembly to be held early next year. Political wrestlers, prominent among them being the Chief Minister, Mulayam Singh Yadav, Bahujan Samaj Party supremo, Mayawati, and BJP chief, Rajnath Singh, besides Congress leader, Salman Khurshid, have begun sharpening their knives against their respective adversaries.
It is a do-or-die situation for all political parties and all of them have their own interpretation of the results. For the ruling Samajwadi Party (SP) it is crucial that they retained UP in order to remain politically relevant. It is important for its arch rival, the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) whose leader Mayawati is apparently emerging from the shadows of the many corruption scandals that had plagued her during her stint as Chief Minister.
The Congress is trying to rebuild itself in the State where it has been destroyed because of caste and communal combinations. Also it is being termed as the launch pad for Rahul Gandhi to a much bigger role in national politics. The party is hoping that the Gandhi family charisma will help them to power in UP. The only problem for the Congress is that it does not have the organisation to convert this charisma into electoral votes.
In another way this is also a do-or-die campaign for the BJP. The party can only hope to come to power in Delhi if it can reclaim UP. Interestingly, in the civic elections, none of the second rung leaders of the BJP were willing to campaign because all of them believed it was a lost cause. It is solely due to the personal commitment and efforts of Rajnath Singh who is the current BJP president that the party has done well. Of course this time he was supported fully by the cadres of the RSS in mobilising votes.
The BSP did not participate directly in the polls but supported several independents. But when the results came in, all parties claimed victory in their own way. The BJP won the most number of mayoral seats. The Samajwadi Party claimed that it had won the most number of seats in the countryside. The Congress was happy because it had won three major towns and increased its overall vote share although it lost in Amethi which is a stronghold.
The Samajwadi Party is quite happy with the rise of the BJP in UP. This is because the rise of the BJP results in the consolidation of the Muslim vote in UP in favour of the SP. A decline in BJP results in the rise of Congress and BSP which is unacceptable to the SP. Therefore, Mulayam Singh Yadav has been doing everything to consolidate his Muslim "vote bank". This has resulted in some way in the consolidation of the Hindu vote in favour of the BJP.
While all these are good for electoral maths, they have the potential to cause huge social tensions in a politically volatile State like UP. Also since these elections were largely for local civic bodies, mostly local issues were at play which will definitely not be so when the Assembly elections will be held where issues like development, corruption and law and order will be paramount.
While all political parties may bask in the glory of their success or rework their strategies to recoup their losses and improve their gains, what is vital is that UP continues to suffer. It has large-scale poverty, crime, disease and illiteracy. The common man continues to suffer while politicians continue to manipulate the poor ignorant population on empty slogans and the paranoia of caste and communal issues. There is little hope that things will change for the better, whichever party comes to power. But then again, that's what the parties themselves want, isn't it? |
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