BJP has scored a windfall of gains in the elections to posts of mayors and chairperson of municipal corporations and municipalities. Throwing mathematical calculations to the winds, councillors indulged in massive crossvoting.
Independents changed floors. BJP won six mayoral posts out of seven, and 31 posts of chairmen in 47 Nagar Parishads. BJP managed to install its chairpersons in 162 out of 252 municipalities. Out of 303 civic body results declared, BJP won 198 and Congress only 95 chairperson posts.
Congress wanted to install its candidate as mayor in Ajmer, it packed off independent councillors to a five-star hotel resort in Bengaluru. On return, these independents voted and BJP candidate became the mayor. In three places, the contest was a tie between Congress and BJP.
Candidates from both parties polled same number of votes. Draw of lots took place, and the ‘parchis’ went in favour of BJP in all 3 places. Rajasthan BJP chief Madan Rathore gave the credit of this win to Chief Minister Bhajan Lal Sharma. He said, it was he who chalked out the strategy for a win. There was despondency in the Congress camp.
State Congress chief Govind Dotasara said, Congress has “won in the court of the people”. He alleged BJP resorted to intimidation and inducements. Why did the elections of mayors and civic body chairpersons become so important? Why did the chief minister put in his efforts to score a win? One must try to understand.
Bhajan Lal Sharma was being considered as weak chief minister. His own party leaders used to come to Delhi and warn that if he continued as CM, it will be difficult for BJP to win elections. Bhajan Lal Sharma became the chief minister but he had no experience of running a government. But he is an old hand in the party organization.
During civic body elections, he used his organizational skill to the best of his limits. It is not that the Congress did not make attempts to win. Congress tried hard to protect its councillors, but all efforts proved futile in the face of Bhajan Lal Sharma’s organisational juggernaut. Bhajan Lal Sharma has now consolidated his position as Chief Minister after this victory. He ensured BJP mayors in most of the cities, but the message that has gone out from civic body polls is that Congress is not weak in Rajasthan.
Bhajan Lal Sharma will have to face strong challenges now. He will have to prove that he can run a good government and win the trust of the people through hard work.
UP : Caste politics enters fast mode
BJP formally launched its election preparedness yesterday from Meerut where CM Yogi Adityanath and BJP chief Nitin Nabin addressed a conference of party workers. Yogi cautioned party workers not to get embroiled in caste disputes, stay united and work on the basis of performance.
Yogi alleged, opposition parties are trying to mislead voters by setting new false narratives. AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi came to UP and openly offered alliance to Samajwadi Party and Congress, in order to avoid division of opposition votes. He however put a rider. He said, the agreement must be on equitable basis.
SP supremo Akhilesh Yadav rejected Owaisi’s offer. He said, the alliance formation in UP will not change. In other words, Owaisi’s alliance offer stands rejected. Congress MP Imran Masood said, if there is going to be an alliance in UP, why the delay over seat sharing. “The more the delay, the more BJP will benefit”, he said.
In UP, Congress and Samajwadi Party described Owaisi’s AIMIM as the “B-team of BJP”. Their leaders openly alleged that Owaisi comes to divide Muslim votes, thereby indirectly helping the BJP. Owaisi said, he had given a similar offer during Bihar elections to RJD chief Tejashwi Yadav, but he had rejected. It is now for Akhilesh to decide.
Meanwhile, Rajbhar community leader Omprakash Rajbhar has said, UP will be divided soon and a day will come when the son of a Rajbhar caste will be the CM of Purvanchal. Akhilesh Yadav responded saying, Rajbhar has been trying to mislead people at the behest of his patrons in BJP, but his dreams to divide UP will never succeed.
It is an open secret that castes matter a lot in Uttar Pradesh politics. Votes are divided on the basis of castes. Most of the parties prepare their strategies keeping castes in mind. Owaisi is eyeing Muslim voters. Om Prakash Rajbhar wants to unite voters of his caste.
Sanjay Nishad, though a minister, sat on dharna against his own government to gain sympathy of ‘mallah’(boatmen) caste. Akhilesh Yadav is eyeing Yadav and Muslim votes, apart from 21 pc of Dalit votes. That is why he has given the slogan PDA (Pichhda Dalit Alpasankhyak- Backwards, Dalits, Minorities). He even directed that Chhatra Sabha workers should wear blue uniform and a blue ‘gamchha’.
Mayawati had been the influential leader of Dalits for several decades, but of late, she had been tweeting only about her family members. BJP has sniffed opportunity in this. It has started planning to put all efforts to compensate the loss of Dalit votes in UP during the 2024 LS polls.
In the days to come, caste politics in UP will be entering into a fast mode.