Last Friday was D Day for the Uttar pradesh elections, the state of dominant politics. It was the day for the announcement of the assembly election results. It was day when MAYAWATI was born again as a real dominant political leader as her party Bahujan Samaj Party(BSP) swept the elections and were capable of forming the government single handedly without any support which the congress was willing to give. Mayawati lead the part to an astounding victory and it was her formula or brahmin and dalit votes that brought her back to power. It was her charismatic leadership and her articulate and vociferous speeches that had a big impact on the peoples attitude and they delivered a resounding verdict for a change in the government.
Out of the total 402 seats present in the assembly one requires a 50% share ie a minimum of 201 seats to form the government single handedly.The BSP single handedly demolished all the other political partied in the fray by capturing a massive 208 seats well over the required limit. Even the various exit polls conducted by various magazines and the news channels didn't expect such a result.In all Mayawati sprung a surprise on every one including the media people and the political parties. Now what was the reasoin for such success in these elections. Her plan was very simple. She combined the brahmin and the dalit votes ie the upper and the lower caste people voted for her and thus eating away into the their party votes. This is easier said than done. The magic of politics that she spun kept everyone confused and the margin by which she won indicated the absolute devastation of the other parties.It is only after the time a of 1978 that a political part has single handedly come into power. Kudos to her for showing such an exlimpary performance.
The Samajwadi Party(SP) leadd by Mulayam Singh and Amar Singh was totally routed during these elections.They could gather oly a meagre 98 seats. What caused their defeat? According to me lawlessness ans inorderness was in absolute shambles. The upper caste had been let down by the BJP and the common man wanted a change. The law and order situation requires a complete upheaval. The SP banked too much on the ad campaign that it ran with Amitabh endorsing it. It gave no dividends and their strategy was useless. They bothered too much about Congress and in particular bashing which was just diverted the attention.They thought that they were taking on only the Congress and the BJP least knowing that the BSP had set the battle plan beautifully to its advantages. In addition Mulayam was bothered too much about the the election commission and commented that the EC was running a parallel government which has been rubbished by everyone. This is probably the first that the elections are being held in a free and fair manner without a single incidence of booth capturing.
Another big loser during these elections was the BJP which lost miserably a large share of the seats. The reason attributed to the BSP campaign and they ate into the upper caste votes of the BJP. The upper castes were probably tired of the BJP's rantings and lost hope in the Mulayam government and hence the only choice available was the BSP. The Congress on the other hand say that they never expected a miracle out of Rahul Baba's road shows and were never in the reckoning.The Congress and the BJP will have to back to the drawing board and do some serious thinking on how to approach the forthcoming polls else their survival not only in UP but as a national party will be in question.
But for the time being the limelight is all one person and she is making maximum use of it to boost her image.Many will remember her as a hardlined and very agressive politician but over the years she defintely has meloowed down considerably. Hoping that she manages to deliver on the faith that the people have laid on her. At the moment one can only say 'yeh sab maya hai'...
