Lesson from Assembly Election Uttar Pradesh 2012:

Uttar Pradesh

Elections for Legislative assembly having 403 members took place during Feb-Mar 2012.

Uttar Pradesh in India

Mayawati

Ms Mayavati, Supremo of Bahujan Samaj Paksha (BSP) had been governing the state prior to election. She won the earlier election through social engineering. This had been a great trend and should have succeeded for development of state and the nation. However, she didn't try for making a cohesive society. She still followed the old method of dividing society in groups, offering things (this is a new method of corruption originated in Tamil Nadu), coming to power and ruling for self prosperity. Janata (Citizens) don't even think that whatever is offered is from State exchequer meaning their own money and not money of people who offer it. This is definitely swindling of public money. Money otherwise used for development of public is offered to buy votes. In addition Ms Mayawati tried to divide state in to 4 states. What could be advantage to the public? Yes, there will be advantage for politicians. This would result in 3 more Chief Ministers and many more ministers. Those who wish to be ministers would be benefited but not the common man. Janata proved her wrong.

Lal Krishna Advani and Nitin Gadkari

Bhartiya Janata Paksha (BJP) tried to follow Indian National Congress (Congress). BJP did not understand that after deducting SC/ST, OBC and Muslims from total voters balance Hindu voters remained just 5-10%. Moreover, these voters hardly exercise their right to voting. This policy of dividing nation based on religion and caste didn't work for BJP. Further BJP had to import leaders from other states for propaganda. This created a doubt in voters whether BJP can give a leader to become chief minister. Voters always seek a local leader who is approachable all the times to understand their aspirations and hear their needs.

Rahul Gandhi

Beni Prasad Verma

Salman Khurshid

Indian National Congress (Congress) is the oldest player in politics. Immediately after gaining independence it was natural that the party was voted to power by Indians. Initially the party leaders were selfless and believed in development of nation. Condition of people had been miserable. Congress had same ideology and thinking like Swami Vivekananda. So congress concentrated on down trodden, tried to level up all. However, investment needed for this was miserably low. None would have succeeded in this tremendous task. For first 15-20 years the basic problem to feed every mouth had been prominent. However, by this time congress leaders who had tasted power became more and more selfish. Key shifted from development of nation to self development. This needed winning election and getting power. Congress understood that votes of Janata belonging to Scheduled Caste and Tribes are the best target to get winning votes. So she projected herself as saviours of SC/ST and Muslims. In short the vote bank was developed by congress for gaining power. This worked well for a few years. Later it was found that additional votes required are possible from Other Backward Class voters. So congress added these to her strategy. This left remaining upper caste Hindus who are around 5-10%. Congress didn't bother about them. Congress could come to power even without support of these Hindus, not only because of number but also because this segment hardly takes part in voting. Other political parties understood this game and tried to lure away tradition voters voting for congress candidates. This is more prominent in Uttar Pradesh. There is a division in traditional congress vote bank over a period of time and present condition is congress is not in a position to secure adequate seats in this state. Congress tried level best through Rahul Gandhi but didn't succeed. Voters knew that Rahul won't be chief minister and hence can't be approached for their aspirations and needs. After election many congress leaders came forward to take responsibility of defeat in the elections. Digvijay Singh had been to first to accept responsibility and gave clean chit to Rahul Gandhi. However, Rahul Gandhi remained firm and openly accepted responsibility and the defeat. If one analyses the situation it is clear that the responsibility is rightly that of supreme commander of congress party. None in congress can utter a word without clear direction from the supreme commander. Statements made by 2 ministers viz Salman Khurshid and Beni Prasad Verma made all the difference. Their statement must have been full blessings from high command. Verma even challenged Election Commission. They are the heroes of UP elections. Muslims didn't believe in congress for 4.5/9% reserve quota for Muslims from OBC and OBCs were naturally scared as they saw a sizeable quota of reservations would be lost, if congress comes to power. Although Rahul Gandhi accepted responsibility, many others came forward to lift heavy weight of defeat, the real heroes were ignored.

Akhilesh Yadav

It is presumed Shri Akhilesh Yadav succeeded in the election. He promised many things to Janata, at the cost of exchequer. However, his success would not have materialised without help from Khurshid and Verma. Akhilesh, armed with the boy-next-door charm, had drawn large crowds since he started his cycle and rath yatras in September 2011. Akhilesh is not an orator but is easily accessible and easily mixes with people. He specifically concentrated on youth, offered them employment or unemployment package, laptops and tablet PCs. He further gave a new look to the SP combining its old 'socialist' and keeping distance with persons involved in criminal cases. He took a stand to keep out DP Yadav, against senior SP leaders like Azam Khan and Mohan Singh. Communities other than Muslims, Yadavs and upper castes forgot excesses of Mulayam Singh's last regime. This resulted in people accepting SP as best replacement for Mayawati. This tipped the scales in the SP's favour. Khurshid and Verma completed the task and SP got unprecedented majority in UP.