The Hindu : National : BJP stalwarts routed in Uttar Pradesh

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, May 14, 2004

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National

BJP stalwarts routed in Uttar Pradesh

By J.P. Shukla

LUCKNOW, MAY 13. The Bharatiya Janata Party which had high hopes about recapturing Uttar Pradesh suffered unexpected reverses and its tally was reduced to less than half — 10 seats — [it won 25 seats last time.] Many of its stalwarts, including the Union Ministers, Murli Manohar Joshi (Allahabad) and Swami Chinmayanand ( Jaunpur), the Assembly Speaker, Kesrinath Tripathi (Machli Shahr) and the State party chief, Vinay Katiyar ( Lakhimpur Kheri), were routed.

The Prime Minister, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, won, but his popularity index suffered a battering as reflected in the reduced margin of his victory.

The Samajwadi Party emerged the major gainer, improving its tally to 37 seats from 26 last time. It not only snatched a considerable number of seats from the BJP, but also humbled the latter's heavy weights in prestigious fights.

The Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD), an ally of the Samajwadi Party, however, could not put up a spectacular showing. It was allotted 10 seats, but won only three. It won two seats last time.

The gains of the Bahujan Samaj Party were also marginal. It added three seats to its last time tally of 14.

Caste factor

The results had amply proved that caste considerations continued to influence the voting pattern in the State. The traditional grip of the Samajwadi Party over the backward caste vote bank had remained in tact by and large. Similar was the grip of the Bahujan Samaj Party over the Dalit electorate. Their supporters seemed to have made up their mind even before the elections were called and no amount of campaigning made them change their mind.

`Marginal swing'

The voting pattern also indicated that any swing in the minority support was but marginal. While in some constituencies, sections among the minorities favoured the Congress, that could hardly change the fortunes of the party. It did gain additional seats in some areas besides retaining Amethi and Rae Bareli but had to suffer ignominy elsewhere. Its tally remained static at nine.

The Congress' defeats in Pratapgarh and Rampur were especially shocking. Jayaprada, former Rajya Sabha MP from Andhra Pradesh, won the Rampur seat as the Samajwadi Party candidate.

The Rampur result had a special bearing on minority preferences, the constituency having more than 40 per cent Muslim electorate. The defeat of the Congress candidate, Noor Bano, hailing from the ruling family of Rampur, showed that the Muslims had refused to buy the propaganda that the Samajwadi Party had some kind of understanding with the BJP.

The results also showed that the magic of Rahul Gandhi as a vote-catcher had little impact outside the Amethi-Rae Bareli belt.

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