Lucknow: Uttar Pradesh voters gave a clear and decisive mandate in favour of the Samajwadi Party, which decimated the opposition to regain power in the state after five years easily crossing the half-way mark in the 403-member Assembly on its own. Samajwadi Party supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav is all set to take over as the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh for the fourth time with his party coming up with the most impressive result by a single party in the state since 1985.
The Mayawati-led Bahujan Samaj Party, which surprised everyone in 2007 by forming the government on its own, was decisively routed; the Bharatiya Janata Party the Congress finished way behind the two regional players, putting a huge question mark on the two national parties in a state which sends 80 MPs to the Lok Sabha.
The Samajwadi Party won 224 seats while the BSP finished second winning 79 seats and was leading in Babina, where the results could not be declared due to violence by Samajwadi Party workers who alleged that several EVMs had been tampered with. The BJP and the Congress-Rashtriya Lok Dal alliance managed to bag 47 and 38 seats respectively while smaller parties and Independents won 14 seats.
The Congress even after a rigorous campaign by Amethi MP and party General Secretary Rahul Gandhi failed to impress the Uttar Pradesh voters, who showed no inclination to reward him for his aggressive campaign. The party failed to win the number of seats as its leaders had been claiming in the run-up to the counting day.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), too, failed to challenge the Samajwadi Party even after bringing back its prodigal daughter Uma Bharti and inducting tainted leader Babu Singh Kushwaha with an eye on the backward caste votes. None of the factors seemed to have worked in the party’s favour and its hopes of Hindu vote polarisation in its favour following the Congress and Samajwadi Party’s comments on reservation to Muslims have also not come true.
The Samajwadi Party tried to change its image by handing over the campaign reins to Mulayam Singh Yadav’s son Akhilesh Yadav. Akhilesh's thrust on revamping the image of the Samajwadi Party, which has been accused of turning a blind eye towards the anti-socials resulting in poor law and order during its previous regime, paid off handsomely for the party as its bicycle raced ahead of the BSP's elephant.
Akhilesh’s fresh approach, bicycle yatras touching all regions of the state, thrust on the clean image of the candidates, focus on the youth and a promise to provide a clean and efficient administration in contrast to the scam-tainted Mayawati regime struck a chord with the voters and the party registered an impressive win.
Though some of the Congress leaders had been boasting of reaching the three-figure mark in the Assembly, lack of strong state leaders and an almost dysfunctional party machinery meant that Rahul Gandhi's campaign could not be sustained at the ground level.
The Congress's best hope would have been if the Samajwadi Party failed to reach the half-way mark and had to take its help in forming the government in Lucknow. Such an arrangement would have resulted in a major impact on national politics and the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) Government. The UPA Government has been rendered almost lame duck following the outbreak of several scams and the belligerence of maverick allies like Trinamool Congress's Mamata Banerjee, who has forced the Centre of rollback several crucial reform measures.
Samajwadi Party with its 22 Lok Sabha MPs would have provided the perfect buffer for the UPA, which had been finding it very difficult to tackle the 19 MPs belonging to the Trinamool Congress only if the grand old party had been in a position to offer support to Mulayam.
But with the voters giving a decisive mandate in favour of the Samajwadi Party, the Congress has been left to lick its wounds and ponder over its future in India's largest state that has once again preferred a local leader and given resounding thumbs down to paratroopers belonging to national parties.
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