The SP, and even the Independents, are breaching the BJP’s citadel in rural UP

The political wind blowing across Uttar Pradesh (UP) may not be very soothing for the ruling BJP. The results of the recent panchayat elections give the first indication of the emergence of a challenge for the saffron outfit in rural UP. The Opposition, led by the Samajwadi Party and Independents, has made significant inroads in the village politics of the State. Though Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath still remains well-entrenched and the BJP continues to enjoy enormous appeal among the masses, one has to keep a close eye on the change in popular perception about the Government in the wake of the COVID-19 surge as it can pose a serious challenge to Yogi’s bid to retain power in 2022. Both the BJP and its rivals are claiming victory in the polls, but reports trickling in from the counting booths clearly indicate that the saffron outfit has not done as well as its leaders might have planned while plunging the State into such a massive exercise in the dreaded Corona era. The panchayat elections were being treated as a referendum on the Yogi Government’s work. These elections are not contested on any party symbol, but the BJP named its candidates. This was done with the belief that its candidates would win the elections and then the party would go to town claiming its hegemony in rural politics. Sadly for the BJP, the Independents stole the march in the gram sabha polls while the SP exceeded expectations in the district panchayat elections.

Many relatives of the BJP leaders lost to the SP or Independents. Take the case of Lucknow where Sarita, the daughter-in-law of BJP MP Kaushal Kishore lost the district panchayat election in Mohanlalganj. Kishore’s wife Jaya Devi is the MLA from Malihabad. Vijay Laxmi, the wife of SP MLA Ambrish, won this segment. The reports from other districts like Varanasi, Gorakhpur, Ayodhya, Kanpur and Kannauj, too, do not augur well for the BJP. In Ayodhya, of the 40 District Development Council seats, the SP won 22, the BJP eight, the BSP four and the rest of the seats went to Independents. In Varanasi, the BJP failed to reach double digits while the SP won 17 seats. In Etawah, the SP swept the polls, winning 18 seats. In Mainpuri, Sandhya Yadav, the niece of SP patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav who contested on the BJP’s ticket, lost to the SP-backed candidate by 1,905 votes. In Mathura, the BJP-supported Chanda Devi lost to Devati, an Independent, by over 12,000 votes. The panchayat elections are important as they help gauge the influence of political parties in the rural areas. It is believed that a gram pradhan can sway 10-15 per cent votes in any gram sabha while the BDC and DDC members can influence the block and district voters, respectively. The DDC chairman is considered the ‘first person’ of the district. The poll outcome shows that the BJP will have to revise its political strategy while Akhilesh Yadav needs to strengthen his party organisation to replicate this success in the 2022 Assembly elections.