'Bulldozing' Opposition charge, BJP rides the pro-incumbency wave

Celebrations broke out in the state capital and in other places, including Ayodhya and Varanasi, by jubilant Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders and workers as it became increasingly evident that the party was going to form government.
 

The saffron party’s Uttar Pradesh (UP) headquarters in the heart of Lucknow witnessed quintessential Holi scenes, with big guns, including Chief Minister (CM) Yogi Adityanath and his Deputy Keshav Prasad Maurya, smeared in the colours of the festival and beaming before a frenzied crowd of supporters.
 

A few leaders, such as Cabinet Minister Satish Mahana, broke into an impromptu jig on the dais.
 

CM Adityanath had earned the sobriquet of ‘Bulldozer Baba’ owing to the stern use of bulldozer by the civic and law enforcement agencies to evict land sharks and illegal occupants from government properties during his five-year term (2017-22) in the state.
 

The Samajwadi Party (SP) mentioned it first, as a jibe. The BJP decided to wear it as a badge of honour. Everywhere in Lucknow and elsewhere, workers celebrated the ‘bulldozer’ as a symbol of the party’s victory: they wore caps with tiny mechanical bulldozers, dragged bulldozer models on the streets, posed for pictures on the blade of the bulldozer, and burst crackers that were called… ‘bulldozer’!
 

In reference to a raid in Kannauj and Kanpur earlier this year, where over Rs 250 crore was believed to have been recovered from a perfume trader, Adityanath had said, “We used the money for development. The previous government used to do golmaal (of funds). The bulldozer of UP is working for the development of the state, as well as to recover money from the mafia and the corrupt.”
 

Laddoos became the new currency of power across the state — in Gorakhpur, the CM’s constituency; in Varanasi, Prime Minister (PM) Narendra Modi’s constituency; and even in the Delhi office of the BJP, where the PM and Home Minister Amit Shah came to address workers. Laddoos were distributed freely. Drums were beaten and workers danced using Holi colours to celebrate the party’s stupendous victory.
 

Offices of the Bahujan Samaj Party and the Congress were largely deserted in contrast. A senior UP party leader and electronic media-in-charge Zishan Haider had resigned from his post on Wednesday night, even before the counting of votes.
 

Both parties have been decimated. There were only thin crowds at the SP office in Lucknow as a grim Akhilesh Yadav drove into the party office around mid-day without stopping or talking to anyone.
 

The BJP parliamentary board will meet in Delhi later on Thursday.