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- INDIA
Dangerous as it may sound but it would be no exaggeration to compare the politics of the day in Uttar Pradesh (UP) to a game of Russian Roulette. Russian Roulette is that game of chance where players take serious risks with something as important as human life.
Similarly all political parties contesting the civic polls in UP seem to have surrendered to chance. The desire is to win as many seats as possible by chance and not by convincing voters of what will be done to improve life of citizens in cities of the most populous and backward state in the country.
Voters complain of unemployment, rising gas cylinder prices, house tax and water tax. Voters pine for better roads, garbage-free and clean neighbourhoods. They want clean water and safety but all that politicians want to give the voter are empty promises. The entire focus of contestants is to try and win elections by chance, and often by hook or by crook.
Bahujan Samaj Party Wakes Up
The Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) was rumoured to be the B-team of the ruling party till yesterday. Today it has re-emerged as the only champion of Dalits and Muslims in polls where the first round of voting took place on May 4. Voters will return to the polling booth for a second round of voting on May 11 and counting will take place on May 13.
Voters seem to have returned to the Dalit-Muslim partnership as strategised by the late Dalit leader and founder of the BSP Kanshi Ram. But that idea was not allowed to take off by shortsighted politicians. Many voters want to give Kanshi Ram’s successor Mayawati another chance at the polls.
Supporters are seen turning away from the Samajwadi Party (SP). It is the SP that is now accused of being the B-team of the ruling party and of helping it to win elections. An old-time voter said that it was the mission of SP founder Mulayam Singh Yadav to end all oppression against the Dalit and minority population of the state.
However, somewhere on the way the SP forgot that mission and is not standing up to injustices practised openly in society today. The SP was till recently seen as a confidante of citizens belonging to the backward castes and of minorities but the party can no longer be trusted at least by many Muslims. This is the collective feeling of many voters in Prayagraj today.
Many Yadav voters too are disappointed with the leadership acumen of Akhilesh Yadav. They are also on the lookout for greener pastures. A non-Muslim SP candidate in Shahjahanpur Archana Verma jumped the fence to join the ruling party as its mayoral candidate.
In Saharanpur well known politician Imran Masood left the SP to campaign for the BSP. Mayawati has happily appointed Masood as the coordinator for the BSP in the party’s western UP wing.
Early last year Masood had quit the Congress Party to join the SP. The SP chief’s silence on the routine attack on members of the Muslim community by the ruling party is a matter of concern for Muslims in general.
“How can Akhilesh Yadav hope to retain our continued support if he doesn’t assure us that he will take care of our safety and security in the state?” wonders a Muslim voter who is surprised that the SP chief is tight lipped about the serious accusations made against ruling party parliamentarian, muscleman and head of the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh by Olympian female wrestlers.
Brij Bhushan has gone to town bragging to the media about knowing Akhilesh Yadav since he was a child and about the deep friendship that the two enjoy. However every time that the SP chief has been questioned about ‘friend’ Brij Bhushan, he has changed the subject.
Surprisingly when parliamentarian Dimple Yadav, wife of the SP chief was asked about Brij Bhushan, she had categorically said that she favoured an impartial inquiry into the matter to find out if there was any truth to the accusations, or not.
Setback After Setback
The other setback to the SP is the absence of Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) chief Jayant Chaudhary in the roadshow and press conferences organised in recent times by the SP. The one who is seen more frequently by the side of Akhilesh Yadav these days is Bhim Army chief Chandrashekhar Azad who projects himself as a more influential champion of Dalits than Mayawati!
In Agra, Azad has fielded a candidate in opposition to the SP while in Saharanpur he campaigns for the win of the SP candidate against the BSP. What kind of politics is this, wonder voters.
There are 17 mayoral seats that are being contested out of which the main face off seems to be between the ruling party and the BSP. The one seat that the SP may win is Firozabad. No more, predict analysts. The hottest seats are Agra, Aligarh, Jhansi, Meerut, Saharanpur and Prayagraj where the BSP shows promise of many a win.
The BJP’s Muslim Love
Surprise! Surprise! Surprise! The ruling party has fielded 250 Muslim candidates for the local body elections, considered a trial run of the Lok Sabha elections in 2024. The BSP has fielded Muslim candidates for the post of mayor in six out of 10 municipal corporations.
The ruling party has fielded Muslim candidates in Prayagraj, Varanasi, Gorakhpur, Lucknow, Jhansi, Agra and Firozabad for the first time, having organised many an outreach event like the Pasmanda Muslim Intellectual Conference to attract the attention of backward populations within the larger Muslim community.
Dialogues have also been organised with Sufi saints. In the 2017 elections, the ruling party fielded 100 Muslim candidates in the state. This year the number has been more than doubled for 14, 684 posts being contested in total.
Although there is a thumbs down for the SP in the local body elections, some surveys point out that the party enjoys the support of 31 percent of voters. While the BSP is expected to gain about eight percent votes, the lion share of votes of nearly 45 percent is expected to fall into the lap of the ruling party.
