COVID writing on the wall ahead of UP polls

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COVID writing on the wall ahead of UP polls

Thursday, 20 May 2021 | Biswajeet Banerjee

COVID writing on the wall ahead of UP polls

The severe wave of the killer pandemic has virtually nullified all the good work undertaken by the Yogi Adityanath Government

After a month of devastation Covid-19 has caused in Uttar Pradesh leaving behind a trail of deaths and stories of agony emanating from almost each mohulla across the State, the insiders in the BJP and in the RSS realise that whatever be their achievements like providing houses to poor or free electricity, Ram Mandir and scrapping of Article 370 — everything has been washed away. “We have to start from scratch. This year’s corona pandemic has washed away the good work being done by the BJP Government,” a senior BJP leader told this reporter recently.

The statement coming from a senior BJP leader speaks volumes about the confidence of the party before the assembly election slated for early next year.  From early this year the party had started a campaign with Ram Mandir being the fulcrum of the strategy. The elected representatives from Lok Sabha to ward levels were asked to galvanise party workers. The focus was booth management. Meetings - both physical and virtual - were going on across the State. There was a euphoria in the party cadre that Yogi Adityanath will return as Chief Minister. The main opposition Samajwadi Party too looked a bit reticent as its national president Akhilesh Yadav seemed to be at a sea about the party’s political strategy.

The pandemic seems to have turned the BJP’s applecart over.  The desperate cries of help, for hospital beds and oxygen coming from cities and recovery of bloated and highly decomposed bodies from rivers across the state shows the catastrophe this pandemic has created.

An RSS pracharak says no one is now talking about Ram Temple.  “This was to be our crowning glory event and we were set to use this (Ram Temple) in the next assembly election campaign. That has finished now. The slate is clean. We do not know where to start.” The party believed that the victory on the Ram Mandir issue was the cornerstone of its campaign.  Scrapping of article 370 added to the sheen of their campaign. Now, they seem to stand nowhere.

A ruling party corporator recounts how he had failed to help people of his ward when they were in dire need of beds in hospitals or were running around for a cylinder of oxygen. He called officers over a hundred times but they did not pick up his calls. Even senior party leaders showed their helplessness. Now, the corporator questions how he can expect support from these people because he has failed them when they needed his support the most. Families who lost people to Covid are also losing faith in the party, government and the system.

Union Minister Santosh Gangwar himself wrote a letter to Chief Minister Adityanath saying officials are not attending calls of people. When ruling party MLA from Nawabganj Kesar Singh died of corona his son tweeted saying if this government cannot save its MLA, what to talk about others. Party MP from Meerut Rajendra Agarwal wrote a letter to Adityanath to increase the number of beds in hospitals after reports that gangs of touts were allocating beds to patients in Covid hospitals.

What has added to BJP and Yogi Government’s agony is the Panchayat elections. It is now no secret that Covid infection reached villages also because of them. In the Covid 1.0 the villages remained untouched because the outsiders were not allowed entry unless they completed mandatory 14-day quarantine in schools outside villages. This time the situation was different. During the election campaign villagers enjoyed parties, thrown by candidates, as is the norm in Panchayat elections, sacrificing their personal safety. Once the pandemic reached villages it took a calamitous shape.

These elections cast their shadow on urban areas too. As the pandemic was raging in cities in the first week of April, particularly after Holi, the Yogi government delayed implementing lockdown or the corona curfew as it is called now. This allowed the pandemic to sweep markets, city malls, offices and banks, stretching medical facilities. But the government imposed the curfew only after the Panchayat elections were over on April 29.

The saner voices inside the BJP were of the opinion that elections should be postponed. Senior party leaders and lawmakers wrote to Adityanath for postponing the elect ions. BJP MP Kaushal Kishore said that he had written two such letters, adding his requests were ignored. The campaigning began when covid cases started picking up in the state.

Insiders vouch that at one time the Chief Minister was willing to postpone Panchayat elections. The message was conveyed to the Central leadership but the latter reportedly suggested that Uttar Pradesh should go ahead with the elections. The central leaders argued that if UP cancels Panchayat elections, pressure would be on the Union government to request the Election Commission to postpone West Bengal polls.

At that time the BJP leadership was confident that the party would sweep West Bengal elections and thus they decided to go ahead with Panchayat elections in UP. But the gamble did not pay off in either state. Out of a total 3,050 member district panchayat across 75 districts of UP, the BJP won 768 seats, Samajwadi Party in alliance with RLD won 828 seats (SP 759 seats and RLD 69 seats),  BSP 319, Congress 125 and Independents won 1071 seats.  The Independents included BJP and Samajwadi rebel candidates.

Politically speaking, panchayat elections are not the testimony of the outcome in assembly elections. History shows that there is no guarantee that a party which has won Panchayat election will win assembly polls. In 2006, Mulayam Singh Yadav-led Samajwadi Party won majority of the seats of district Panchayat chairmen but in 2007 assembly polls the party was routed. In 2011, Bahujan Samaj Party led by Mayawati won majority in these elections, but in the following year’s assembly polls BSP could win only 67 seats. In 2017, Samajwadi Party was dethroned though it had won a majority of Panchayat seats in 2016.

It has been a tradition in the last two decades that the ruling party, by dint of money or muscle power has won the posts of block pramukh and panchayat chairman. The

situation during the pandemic is different now. The BJP might win district and block pramukh elections, but can people who are battered by Covid-19 spare the ruling party this time? That is the question ringing the state. The Bharatiya Janata Party will fight on two fronts - one to refurbish its image and two face the wrath of farmers who are all set to intensify their agitation against farm laws. In western UP, already, reports are that the farmers’ agitation may dent BJP’s reputation. The BJP leaders must be aware of this and that is probably why they are saying they will have to start preparing for the assembly elections from scratch.

The writer is Executive Director (News), The Pioneer, Lucknow. The views expressed are personal.

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