Showing posts with label Mulayan sing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Mulayan sing. Show all posts

Friday, March 9, 2012

INDIA: THE STATE ELECTIONS

   The results of election conducted now to several states of India are significant in many ways. The states of Utter Pradesh, Punjab, Manipur, Goa and Utterkhand went to poll. The election result of Utter Pradesh was one keenly watched by the political observers as it indicated the future Government at the centre since U P is the biggest state capable of sending 80 Parliament Members. It is generally said that U P decides who is to rule India, the state sends almost one-third of the M Ps necessary for a majority in Parliament


 Four main political parties and three prominent politicians gambled their luck in the recent U P election


1).Mayavati ( Bahujan Samajvadi Party)  Ms Mayavathi was the chief Minister of the state during the election. She heads Bahujan Samajwadi Party which has considerable influence among the Dalits. In previous election she got not only the votes of Lower cast but from other segments of society also, giving her a thumping majority. This time although the Dalits stood with her, it is presumed, that she did not get much support from other sections like Brahmins.


  Last time she had got full five years to rule the state yet she could not make significant progress to the state despite the fact that she had all the funds and power at her command. It so happened that while in power she lost touch of the people who voted for her and the voters in their first chance ousted her from power. She is still a force to reckon with in U P and will come back to power again in course of Time.  The Bahujan  Samajwadi Party, meaning people’s socialism, has only regional presence.   


Samajwadi party( Mulayam Singh Yadav)


It was crucial for Mulayam Singh Yadav to win this election as the Samajwadi Party was out of power for some time and the party needed a win urgently for a meaningful existence. His son Akhilesh Yadav gave all out help for his father. He had the charisma to win the hearts of people.  Mulayam Sing is an old war-horse, a stalwart. Akhilesh, an engineering graduate, is new in the Assembly electioneering though he is presently an M P who won Parliament elections for three times. 


He is an intelligent person for he had grasped how to influence people and win elections. The election turned out to be his show. Akhilesh traveled the length and breadth of the state attending hundreds of election meetings. Akhilesh’s untiring work paid off, S P can now comfortably rule the state for the next five years as they have 224 seats out of the total seats of 405. It was an outstanding win for SP. Akhilesh Yadav is a rising star in the U.P.horizon and a pretty good challenge to Rahul Gandhi and Mayavati.


Indian National Congress ( Rahul Gandhi)


Once upon a time the Utter Pradesh was a congress bastion and at that time congress Party ruled India alone. However with the Ayodhya dispute people got divided by cast and religion and the state was gone out of the hands of congress. Rahul  Gandhi, understanding the importance of U P, took it upon himself to work for  the old glory of congress in the state.  During the long electioneering he  took care to meet the common man, often personally going to their homes or in meetings to reassure them the commitment of congress party for the welfare of state and its people. He started the electioneering work very early and  worked as hard or more as Akhilesh.

But when the results came out the Congress party was in the last position winning just 28 seats, 5 or 6 seats more than what congress got in last election. Everyone had expected a decent number of seats for Congress party this time.
The dismal performance should prompt the party to sit up and think.  


Ever since the death of Rajeev Gandhi no one from the Gandhi family has ruled India. It has created an alienation from the common people. However the Nehru family is the abiding force in uniting various leaders in the congress party and leading it coherently.


  Mainly because of security reasons the Members of Sonia Gandhi family's interaction with common people is limited to the election work alone. When elections are announced the family come down to the constituencies with waving hands and wide smiles and they return to Delhi after it. The People in U P wanted a down-to-earth and easily approachable leader and Rahul Gandhi did not fit the bill with his Z category security.


The new generation in India is alien to the  independent struggles and the Nehru legacy. Consequently people do not cast votes for congress party just by the mention of Nehru or Gandhi as was before. Now what was once an advantage is now turning out to be a disadvantage. The only remedy is to remain in touch with the people all the time and convince them that the Congress Party is truly concerned about them. It has to be sincere too.


Two more well-known political parties were also contested in U P election, the communist party and the Trinamul congress. Both parties contested in hundreds of seats and both of them drew a blank. Mamata Banerjee did not even turn up for election work. The communist parties had long since lost touch of people there.


If the election result is viewed in an ordinary U P person's angle it is to be admitted that the people of U P used their common sense in the election though a congress party participation to tally the numbers would have been ideal for both the state and the centre as it would make easier for the Congress-led U P A to do the unfinished financial reforms.


Now all major states like,Chennai, West Bengal, Orissa, U.P.have now fallen in the hands of regional parties.The coalition Government formed with them at the centre makes the administration difficult with contradictory agendas of  the states. The regional parties while clamoring for federal rights of the states show scant respect for the decisions of the Central Cabinet decisions. Who gave them right to question Central Cabinet decision ?  For example the present Government could not enforce its own decision to allow multinationals  to open business in retail sector due to the opposition of one coalition partner Mamata Banerjee who feared the anger of state traders and Merchants in her state and opposed it. The cabinet decision had provisions to either enforce or not enforce the cabinet decision in the States as the respective Governments thought fit. If regional parties dictate terms for the central government it would become difficult to govern the country and policy decisions would remain in the files. It would also affect economic progress just as Gold man Sachs pointed out recently.




Images from Google