Uttar Pradesh/ Urban Local Body Polls : Mandate for Performance

Uttar Pradesh voters create a history by giving a chance to the same political party to rule from Panchayat to Parliament after over three decades

Sudhir Aggarwal

Every victory in election politics has different interpretations because of different causes and implications. But every victory is significant in itself, because it shows the trust, affection and mood of the voters. In this sense, the latest results of the local urban body polls in Uttar Pradesh are no different.
The series of victories that the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has been witnessing polls after polls can be understood both in totality and parts. In totality, it is obvious that after repeated experiments of non-BJP parties conducted in Uttar Pradesh during the last two and a half decades, the voters of the state have intensely realised that they have no other option but to trust the BJP from Panchayat to Parliament if they have to pull out the state from the deadlock of caste, crime and appeasement politics and move it on the track of development. This is the reason that from 2014 general elections to the assembly polls held in the beginning of this year the UP voters have given thumping majority to the BJP and reduced the opposition parties to almost non-entity. If we look at this victory in parts, it shows that the voters of the state have rejected all previous beliefs and notions moving around religions, castes, etc. and collectively posed trust in the BJP.

The 2014 Lok Sabha polls were the polls of hopes and expectations when the voters rejected the corrupt misrule of Congress-led UPA as well as its allies like the SP and BSP and displayed historic support to the Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi. The results of UP assembly polls conducted after 2.5 years of Lok Sabha elections were the outcome of the wonderful performance for which the people of the state had basically given him 73 out of the total 80 Lok Sabha seats from UP. The latest landslide victory of the BJP in local body polls now confirms that the BJP has perfectly risen to the expectations that the people had from the party especially after the previous polls. This victory is also important because it shows the stamp of the people on the initiatives that the BJP government has taken for good governance and people’s welfare in the state. These results also show that the people have rejected the negative caste, family and appeasement politics of opposition parties and endorsed the economic reforms carried out effectively and boldly by the Central Government.

All election results in Uttar Pradesh during the last 42 months have proved that the voters of the state have happily accepted and deeply imbibed the BJP’s politics of performance. That is why the party has bagged 14 out of total 16 Municipal Corporations in the polls conducted in three phases on November 22, 26 and 29. Last time, the BJP had 10 Municipal Corporations. The vote share shows that no other party was in the position to challenge the BJP’s Mayor candidates and about five crore urban voters of the state gifted it 87.5 per cent urban local bodies seats with 41.4 per cent votes. The party has also performed extremely well in 198 Municipalities and 438 Nagar Panchayats. Emerging as number one party in the urban local bodies, the BJP has undisputedly been able to secure 35.4 per cent seats. It is because of the trust of the voters that no other party could move ahead of it in any division or region in terms of seats and vote share.
There is one more interesting dimension of this victory. The BJP has registered this unprecedented win even after an undeclared alliance of all non-BJP parties and forces against it on every seat. But the development process that the Prime Minister Shri Modi started and Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath moved forward in eight months has generated the confidence and trust among the voters that they supported the politics of performance over the politics of negativity. That is why the BJP has performed well in Ayodhya, Mathura, Varanasi, Allahabad, Lucknow, Kanpur, Gorakhpur, Agra and Jhansi. The non-BJP parties have literally vanished from these regions. The Congress Party that plays the role of main opposition at the Centre has been rejected by the voters in its own strongholds—Raebareli represented by Congress president Sonia Gandhi and Amethi represented by her son Rahul Gandhi.
These election results make it clear that the people of Uttar Pradesh are totally fed up with the negative politics of caste, family and appeasement and they want development. The public welfare and developmental initiatives taken by the Modi-led government at the Centre and Yogi-led government in the state have generated the confidence among the people that this party has the strength to take benefits of development to every citizen without any favour. That is why they trusted the BJP in assembly polls even after sustained campaign after demonetisation and local body polls after the implementation of GST. They have strengthened the BJP from Panchayat to Parliament so that it can realise the dream of building a new Bharat. Respecting the sentiments of people, the BJP too is trying to ensure a responsive administration where every section of the society feels secure and enjoys the benefits of development.
There is a clear message from these polls for the political parties. The voters of the state are not ready to accept the difference in saying and doing. The defeated parties, which, instead of accepting their defeat, are trying to find faults in the EVMs should now understand that instead of wasting their energy in negative politics they should accept that they cannot make the people fool everytime. The people have understood that the BJP does what it says and it is doing it from the Centre to the State. The comment by CM Yogi Adityanath seems correct that this victory has laid the foundation of another landslide victory for the BJP in 2019 Lok Sabha polls.
(The writer is a social activist and advocate in Supreme Court of India)