Oppn strategy clicks in UP

The BJP defeat in Kairana Lok Sabha and Noorpur assembly constituency has signalled the strength of unity to the opposition in Uttar Pradesh.

Tabassum Hasan of the Rashtriya Lok Dal won the Kairana seat by a margin of 44,618 votes, while Naeemul Hasan of the SP bagged the Noorpur Assembly seat by 5,662 votes.

The winning RLD candidate in Kairana was backed by the Congress, the Samajwadi Party and the Bahujan Samaj Party. In Noorpur, the main opposition parties supported the SP nominee.

Against this united opposition, the Bharatiya Janata Party's all-out effort to stop a chain of losses in bypolls in the state since 2014 proved futile even though Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath led from the front.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi too held a road show in the vicinity of Kairana, prompting the RLD to approach the Election Commission against what it saw as an attempt to influence polling a day later.

The opposition said its strategy was to confine the election, especially in Kairana, on issues like sugarcane dues from mills and farmers' problems.

The opposition parties formulated a well thought-out plan to check polarisation on communal lines and ensure that sugarcane and farmers remained the main issues, RLD spokesman Anil Dubey said.

The opposition parties concentrated mainly on door-to-door campaigning rather than organising big rallies, he said.

"Collecting big crowds was never a part of our strategy which could have given our opponents a chance to gain advantage in the area, which is communally charged," he said.

Opposition leaders claimed that it was with this in mind that Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav did not campaign personally in Kairana, while RLD's Ajit Singh and Jayant Chaudhary led the campaign with a personal touch.

"It is not necessary to personally visit a place to campaign in the elections, SP spokesman Rajendra Chaudhary said.

An appeal was issued on behalf of the party chief and the rest was managed by the leaders there," he said."The need for a personal visit by Akhilesh Yadav was not felt."