Dr Shakti Kumar Pandey from Lucknow
EVEN though the BJP Party fared badly, due to its lack of preparedness, in the last polls of the State Legislative Assembly (and the next one is still a long way ahead), when its lacklustre performance surprised many, the Bharatiya Janata Party remains the only hope for common man in Uttar Pradesh, the heartland of India. Despite its troubled conditions, jumbled policies and humbled leadership etc, people in the State look forward to the BJP for good governance and rule of law.
The party’s better performance in the State of UP could help the Central leadership garner people’s support in this strategically significant State for forthcoming Lok Sabha elections. Towards that end, the party needs to make its presence felt as a powerful Opposition in the State, by raising issues which are so many – be it the shameless and persistent attempts of Muslim appeasement, rampant corruption in government departments, large scale communal violence in different parts of the State, involvement of imboldened Samajwadi Party workers in criminal activities and violence all over.
The crowning of Dr Lakshmi Kant Bajpai as a regular State president has boosted up the morale of party workers, as he has shown the capacity to hold the party cadres together. His high integrity will further strengthen the image and reputation of the State unit amongst voters.
If all the heavy weight BJP leaders of the State work in unison, together forgetting their differences, then the prospects of BJP can rise very high. It has to be seen how Bajpai manages to balance the different leaders – Kalraj Mishra, Uma Bharati, Vinay Katiyar, Rajnath Singh, Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, Hukum Singh, Om Prakash Singh – and of course Kalyan Singh who is all set to join and reclaim his lost glory and rehabilitation of his son.
Kalyan Singh will have to restore his lost all credibility after sharing dias with Mulayam Singh Yadav and joined the latter’s bandwagon; he even went to the extent of apologising to the people of the State for demolition of the disputed structure while he was the Chief Minister.However, BJP is the only party that can fill the void existing in the State politics of Uttar Pradesh. All other political outfits of the State are nothing but private limited companies owned by the affluent political families or individuals who have amassed wealth through corruption and unlawful means – be it Mayawati run Bahujan Samaj Party, Mulayam run Samajwadi Party, Sonia run Congress Party, or even Ajit run RLD for that matter.
Bharatiya Janata Party must restore its past glory and the status of ‘party with a difference’ if at all it wants to become a force to reckon with in Uttar Pradesh, the State which is fraught with corruption, criminalisation, riots and moral degradation. People are badly disappointed with Samajwadi Party for their decision to withdraw pending cases against terrorists, which is an example of crude and gross Muslim appeasement policy.
SP’s and BSP’s support to FDI has further disheartened the middle class businessmen and farmers. BSP is all set to divide people on caste lines raking up the issue of quota in promotion of government employees. People have not forgotten the corruption in BSP government during its last regime. In the given circumstances BJP remains the only hope for the people of the State.
