Saturday, January 28, 2012

Congress and BJP are marginal political entities in UP

Congress and BJP are marginal political entities in UP. Despite UP being the largest state of India and politically most important that alone sends 80 Lok Sabha members, the ruling and the opposition political parties- Congress and BJP- of the nation have remained marginal forces in the state. These two are making only tall claims. Though they may claim of their victory in the assembly elections of Uttar Pradesh, they are only going to increase their vote percentage and nothing more than that.
Congress party had made remarkable turn around in its fortune in UP in the last Lok Sabha elections in which it won 21 Lok Sabha seats while it has been out power in the state for the last 20 years. The credit of improving the position in Lok Sabha goes to Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi MP who had campaigned very hard in the state during Lok Sabha elections. This time Congress has aligned with Ajit Singh’s INLD to improve prospects in some of the Jat dominated assembly constituencies of western UP.
Rahul Gandhi has been vigorously campaigning for his party in the assembly elections. He has been electioneering for the last two months continuously for the party in the state. In absence of any leader of stature in the state to lead the Congress party and due to the dilapidated condition of the party organization, the hard labour put in by Rahul Gandhi is not going to yield expected results.
To retrieve its pre-eminence, Congress Party will have to groom a leader in the state to lead the party from the front and overhaul the organizational bodies from state capital to the village level. UP Congress leaders fail to convert the crowd at Rahul election meetings into votes.
As far as BJP is concerned, it is no better. It has almost become faceless in UP. State party leaders do not see eye to eye that has weakened the party very badly; however, the state had played the most vital role in bringing the BJP on the centre stage of power. It is the credit of UP that BJP-led NDA got power at the Centre in 1998. It is because of the failure of state leaders that national leadership had to bring fiery Uma Bharti to take charge in UP elections. But this is also not going to catapult the party anywhere near power. Despite tall claims, the BJP is also not going to do more than slightly improve the vote percentage in the assembly elections.
The battle of UP is mainly between the ruling BSP and the opposition Samajwadi Party. Both have secured vote banks. Yadavas , some section of Muslim voters, some backward castes and some of the upper castes are secured voters of Mulayam Singh’s Samajwadi Party. Scheduled caste in entirety, some sections of Muslims, Majority of OBCs and some upper caste votes are secured for Chief Minister Mayawati’s BSP. Chief Minister Mayawati is also facing anti-incumbency hurdle in her way to return to power. The fight for the seat of power in Uttar Pradesh is between Mayawati and Mulayam Singh Yadav, though the outcome will be a hung assembly and marginal political forces will take sides in formation of government to promote their interest.

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