BSP's win in by-polls signals threat to Oppositions

The clean sweep of Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) in Uttar Pradesh by winning all the five- three Vidhan Sabha and two Lok Sabha-seats in by-polls has again established the party’s supremo Mayawati’s supremacy in the state.

The by-polls have signalled that BSP’s social engineering formula is still entrenched as it was in the scorching sun of May 2007 when Mayawati single-handedly breaking all myths of coalition politics had established her regime in the state for the fourth time.

The victory of BSP is a bad news especially for the Congress, which have openly given an impression of it as anti-Mayawati with a soft corner for the SP’s Mulayam Singh Yadav.

The Uttar Pradesh by-poll is an indication for the Congress to work harder as Rahul Gandhi’s dalit love has not bore fruit yet which is not a good sign for the party in the state for the forthcoming general elections. The news is bad for BJP too, as it also could not do any charisma in the by-poll.

More or less the by-election gives an indication of nail biting contest in Uttar Pradesh persists between two political parties-BSP and SP only. If the electors show the same faith in Mayawati, whose Haathi triumph the by-poll, and back up her it would be very difficult for the two national parties Congress and BJP to make a ground there.

For the Congress it seems that everything is going against it. At the centre it is under close scrutiny on some issues like nuclear deal and the recent price rise-which has added fuel to its already burning situation-by the opposition parties as well as its ally, the Left parties.

The party also has not achieved any remarkable win in the recent past assembly elections. Bharatiya Janata Party sustained its regime in Gujarat again and continued its winning journey in Himachal Pradesh too. Again in election in three northeastern states of Tripura, Meghalaya and Nagaland the Congress could not do well except winning a single majority party in Meghalaya. However, despite a single major party in Meghalaya it could not continue its nascent government and failed to pass the floor test.

Congress however could satisfy itself as it has left Bharatiya Janata Party behind everywhere in five by-polls seat except Azamgarh. But, in contrast, it lost Betul seat in by-election in Madhya Pradesh to BJP.

The consolation prize for the Congress again came from the east (after Meghalaya, where it acknowledged as the single largest party in assembly election) as it retained the Kharba and Laxmipur Assembly seats in Bengal and Orissa respectively by narrow margins.

A cabinet minister summed up the East win in humorous ways by saying, “The sun always rises in the east. Besides, our PM is an advocate of the ‘Look East’ policy.”

But, BSP win in all the five seats in Uttar Pradesh no doubt has created a worry for the Congress, as the ‘Haathi’ is the main contender for the ‘Haath’ in the state. The Congress could even gain satisfaction if Samajwadi Party had picked up a couple of seats.

The opposition parties comprising Congress could not meet their expectations what they had thought about Mayawati that her ‘sarva samaj’ project of co-opting the Brahmins in a Dalit-centred coalition was unravelling because the Dalits felt the Brahmins had cornered them in all significant positions. Mayawati’s stern response to Rahul Gandhi’s attempt to wooing Dalits had given the Congress an impression that Dalits were started shifting away from the BSP. But, the results have now wrecked all the impression and forced the party to think that it was nothing but a misconception.