UP Panchayat Poll: Is this Mayawati’s Comeback?

UP Panchayat poll results announces Mayawati’s comeback, who was lying low after 2014 debacle, writes Sharat Pradhan.

The results of the just-concluded UP panchayat polls are a clear indication that Bahujan Samaj Party Chief Mayawati, who has been lying low since the debacle her party suffered in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, is clawing her way back to political reckoning in the state.

The second important takeaway from the local bodies’ polls is the humiliating defeat of the BJP, with the party losing as many as 40 of 48 seats in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s constituency Varanasi.

The bulk of the elected 745,595 gram panchayats, 77,953 kshetriya panchayats and 3,127 zila panchayat members owed their allegiance to the ruling Samajwadi Party (SP). Interestingly, however, the relatives of most ministers in the Akhilesh Yadav government lost. The only exception were the six close kin of SP Chief Mulayam Singh Yadav, who won hands down.

Development, the Primary Issue

The sweep by the ruling SP in the state was no surprise in view of the fact that this grassroots level election is traditionally not contested on party lines, and the winners easily get baited by the ruling political dispensation. Significantly, the election remained limited largely to local issues. But, surprisingly, “development” took precedence over everything else.

“And if you want to ensure any development in your area, it cannot be possible without the active support of the administration, which listens only to the ruling dispensation,” pointed out Radhey Lal, a former head of a village in Mohanlalganj sub-division, around 25 km from Lucknow.

Notwithstanding such insinuations, the BJP’s rout in Modi’s parliamentary constituency is surely an alarm for the Prime Minister, who failed to ensure victory of the party nominee, even in Jayapur that was formally adopted by the PM to be developed as a model village.

BJP’s Rout in Panchayat Polls

The party’s position remained equally precarious in the supposed political bastions of other BJP bigwigs. It lost as many as 50 of the 56 panchayat seats in Union minister Kalraj Misra’s constituency, Deoria, while they wrested 44 of 52 panchayat seats in Rajasthan Governor Kalyan Singh’s home district, Aligarh. The situation was even worse in the Atrauli assembly constituency that had been Kalyan’s private bastion for decades. BJP failed to retain even one of the eight panchayat seats there.

Likewise, in Ghazipur, the parliamentary constituency of Manoj Sinha, the Union Minister of State for Railways, the BJP lost 57 of the 67 seats, while it suffered defeat in 20 of the 24 seats in Union Minister Uma Bharti’s Jhansi.

The embarrassment was no less for Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh whose nominees were knocked off on 20 of the 26 panchayat seats in his Lucknow Lok Sabha constituency. And like Modi, he too failed to ensure victory of the sole zila panchayat member from Benti, the village adopted by him.

BSP Sweeps Panchayat Polls

• Sweep by the ruling SP in the recent panchayat polls was no surprise since winners easily get baited by the ruling political dispensation
  
• BJP’s rout in Modi’s parliamentary constituency, Varanasi is surely an alarm bell
  
• Embarrassment was no less for other BJP stalwarts, Manoj Sinha, Kalraj Misra and Rajnath Singh whose nominees were defeated
  
• Defeat of the close kin of SP ministers is being viewed as huge victory by the BSP which is claiming its comeback ahead of 2017 polls
  

Has BSP Truly Arrived?

What was however strange that the BJP leadership looked quite satisfied with the results. “We had anticipated to win 25-30% seats and I am sure that our winning percentage will not be less than that,” claimed state BJP president Laxmi Kant Bajpai.

While the SP had reasons to revel in the overall sweep, there was loss of face for several ministers. These included Awadhesh Prasad, whose wife and son both lost the poll. Similarly, there was Minister Manoj Kumar Pandey whose son suffered defeat, Rampak Rajvanshi, whose two daughters lost the election together with a dozen close relatives of other ministers.

Interestingly, the defeat of the close kin of SP ministers is being viewed as some kind of victory by the BSP which stood far behind the ruling party in the state on headcount. “This election has shown that now BSP was all set to sweep the state in 2017 when UP goes to the assembly polls,” claimed Swami Prasad Maurya, BSP leader in the state assembly.

What remains to be seen now is the reaction of BJP president Amit Shah, who was known to have expressed his joy over the party nominee’s victory in the Delhi University Students Union election through a very special tweet. Surely, UP panchayat elections should be carrying much more political significance for the party that currently rules India.

(The writer is a senior journalist.)