UP fires one’s imagination. Political pundits and pollsters get excited at the thought of rajneeti in UP. The state has given a catalogue of Prime Ministers and other assorted eminence grace to theworld of Indian polity. The timing of the UP elections this time was crucial. It was viewed as a referendum, a semi final, call it what you will, but a milestone. A milestone simply because it is reckoned that we once again stand on a cusp of change. Seven years of a Congress led coalition at the centre has a seen a policy paralysis in the wake of a slew of corruption scandals. Hence, two years before the general elections, even if one ignores the hyperbole, it is an important election. For several reasons.
Firstly for Rahul Gandhi’s ambition. His tearing ambition to evict the landlady in Lucknow. His hunger to make a mark in national politics by usurping the lost legacy of the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty in UP. So, he has tried and you cannot fault him for that. For Rahul Gandhi and his family, this is a crucial election, probably more important than even the 2009 general elections. A third of the constituencies redrawn as part of delimitation throwing the most hardnosed of political observers to shake their head in wonderment when asked to call the result. A voting trend line which again confused one and all because the higher the percentage, the more the anti incumbency. Anyway , so , goes the theorem. Even as I sit and hammer down the keys on my laptop, news just breaking is that former UP health minister Babu Singh Kushwaha has been arrested by the CBI for his role in the multi crore National Rural Health Mission scam. The time 5.03, just moments after polling ended in the seventh phase. Look at the timing, isn’t it clear that in a coordinated operation, the CBI has swooped down on him. An olive branch from the ruling dispensation led by the Congress at the Centre to the principal and leading party in the state polls SP.
The Muslim quota equally played a major part in these polls. Congress leaders Salman Khurshid, Beni Prasad Verma and Sriprakash Jaiswal made a big song and dance over the sub quota for Muslims. The SP ran its own campaign to garner the Muslim vote. Between the two parties, it appeared that they had cornered the Muslim vote. Or so one would like to believe. But this led to deep polarization with the upper castes and upper classes gravitating perhaps to the BJP. Thoroughly confused.
Oh yes, without a doubt because there is so much in this state of play that one cannot call with any degree of certainty. The sub text just got more interesting because of some of these imponderables. Rahul Gandhi brazen armed with his derring do went eye ball to eyeball with SP’s next gen Aklilesh Singh Yadav. Rahul Gandhi’s naked obsession for the throne in UP and Akilesh’s much calmer response was one of the high points of this election. Point and counter point. huesBoth crisscrossed the state tirelessly, trying to best the other by fulminating against one another. The ‘ lal topi’ wave which first emerged in eastern UP and then spread over the rest of the state hurting the Congress and its aspirations. Similarly, the BJP apparatchik Sanjay Joshi in conjunction with Uma Bharti transposed in to the battlefield from MP tried their level best to return BJP to some respectability. An election of endurance, character, varying characters, many hues and a quadrangular contest hitherto not seen in any other state.
Netaji Mulayam Singh Yadav wisely allowed his son to take on Rahul. Taking a backseat he allowed his son space in this joust. In many ways, not much is known about both Rahul and Akilesh. For both young leaders, this is a defining election, one wants to wrest back his family’s legacy and heritage, while the other wants to reclaim what he believes is rightfully his. In this theatre, no one could ignore the incumbent Behenji Mayawati whose sarvajan samajh social engineering experiment worked wonders in 2007 upsetting everyone’s applecart. A breath taking simple majority has seen five years of what can only be described as arrogant misrule. While the lawlessness of the previous regime was corrected, corruption and in the main a bloody rural health scam cover up has sullied her term indelibly. A park full of elephants on the periphery of the rajdhani accentuating her arrogance. More votes and voters added to the sweepstakes, as many as 1.3 crore new voters voting with their feet.
An election with a vast swathe, replete with colour and colourful lingua franca. Case in point being Salman Khurshid who was even willing to be hanged for the Muslim quota and vote. Rahul Gandhi backed by his family complete with mother and a proud sister backed by a huge party apparatus, though woefully short of cadres on the ground. Even brother in law Robert Vadra pitched in, entering the equation by announcing his arrival, though his wife Priyanka dismissed his electoral ambitions with nonchalance. The Rahul vs Akilesh imagery wasn’t lost on the youth of the state. A new breed of politicians, a new brand of verbal warfare, truly an election or should I call it a theatre. A theatre so huge that from west to east and north to south, it is a country by itself. A state plagued by misrule, underdevelopment, corruption, inhabited by millions who want change and succor and alleviation from their long litany of woes. The exit polls and the punters have called it. The colour of victory is red. Lucknow beckons. It is Samajwadi which appears to be headed in that direction.
March 6 will offer closure. It is only then that we will get to know where Rahul, Akilesh, Uma Bharti, Sanjay Joshi, Mayawati – the dramatis personae – of these hustings will actually know where they
stand.-MAIL TODAY,O4TH MARCH,2012
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