Mulayam back in power, Rahul fails to change Cong fortune

Lohia Park in Gomti Nagar, Lucknow — built by Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav in the memory of his mentor (Ram Manohar Lohia) — which is at present a picture of total neglect, with overgrown shrubs and dry fountains, is set to be resurrected to its former glory, as the regime changes in Uttar Pradesh.

SP’s bicycle quite decisively trounced the Bahujan Samaj Party’s elephant. For the Congress, its abject performance (28, up from 22), led by Rahul Gandhi, saw a dejected Gandhi step out and “accept personal responsibility” for the defeat.

SP proved pollsters wrong by bagging a decisive majority— 225 seats in the 403-seat legislative Assembly is well above the required numbers — and is poised to form a government on its own. Mayawati’s BSP, facing anti-incumbency, got no more than 79, compared to 206 in 2007.

UTTAR PRADESH
Party	Seats won
	2007	2012
BSP	206 (30.43)*	79
SP	97 (25.43)	225
BJP	51 (16.97)	47
INC	22 (8.61)	29#
RLD	10 (3.70)	9
Others	17 (13.34)	14
Total	403	403
*Numbers in parenthesis represent vote %: #INC+NCP

Mulayam’s son, Akhilesh Yadav, the face of a rejuvenated SP, took centre stage at the post-poll press conference, thanking people for reposing confidence in SP. He said ‘Netaji’, as his father is referred to in the party, would be the chief minister.

AGENDA**

*  Free tablets PCs for students passing Class X and laptops to those clearing Class XII
*  Rs 30,000 grant for Muslim girls passing Class X
*  20 hours of electricity in urban, rural areas
*  Raising sugar MSP by 1.5 times

OPPORTUNITIES & CHALLENGES

*  Keeping GSDP at Rs 588,467 crore and raising per-capita income by 63 per cent
*  The state is reeling from a power deficit of 8,464 million units this financial year
*  Literacy has risen only 8% in last five years
*  The government’s social sector spending has been low —at 37.9% of total expenditure

**Winning party’s poll promise

Down
Confident of capitalising on their 2009 Lok Sabha gains (when their vote share had risen to 19 per cent), the Congress was looking at bagging at least 80 seats, but as Rahul Gandhi admitted: “Organisationally, we are just not there.” More, there were frequent statements and counter statements by senior Congress leaders. Salman Khurshid harped on bringing in a minority quota, Beni Prasad Verma seconded him and Sriparakash Jaiswal warned of a Presidential Rule if no party got clear majority.

Despite all the quota talk, Salman’s wife Louise Khurshid, contesting from Farrukhabad, lost even her security deposit, as did the four other party candidates in that district. Senior Cabinet ministers like Jaiswal and Verma were not able to translate their influence into wins for the party in the Assembly segments of their constituencies. In Kanpur, the Jaiswal bastion, both rural and urban, the Congress managed to salvage only one seat.

In fact, what came as a shock was that SP made major gains in the Gandhis’ own bastions of Amethi and Rae Bareli, with Congress losing three of its existing seven Assembly segments.

Ajit Singh’s Rashtriya Lok Dal, bagging just nine seats, also did not make major gains. It could not encash on its Jat vote to strengthen ally Congress’ prospects.

As for the incumbent BSP, the corruption charges levelled by all Opposition parties, the NRHM scam and the Lokayukta indictment of various Cabinet ministers proved to be setbacks. The upper castes that had added muscle to Mayawati’s Dalit vote bank to return her to power in 2007, seemed to have deserted BSP this time.

The Bharatiya Janata Party appeared to have made initial gains, but by the end of the counting (47 seats), it could not even manage to maintain its 2007 tally of 51.

Ahead
One challenge for the new SP government is to maintain the pace of economic growth seen in BSP’s five-year rule. Besides, the state’s per-capita income has risen 63 per cent since the previous SP regime.

Vivek Kumar of Jawaharlal Nehru University says: “Massive infrastructural projects like the Yamuna and the Ganga expressways, where there is a one-to-one relationship between the government and builders, will pose a challenge for SP in maintaining cordial relationships.”

Since UP is the second-largest sugar producing state, the Rs 4,000-crore arrears in will be another challenge for SP. Various promises have been made to focus on the industry’s issues, opening more mills and assuring a high price for cane growers.

Power, with a demand deficit of 12 per cent, the highest among all states, could prove to be another area of concern.