What UPA victory means to UP

Thu, Jul 24 01:40 AM

WITH THE Congress-led UPA government comfortably winning the vote of trust, the political scene will now shift to Uttar Pradesh. Since Samajwadi Party has played a dominant role in the crucial victory of UPA government, the possibility of Mulayam Singh Yadav mounting pressure on BSP government cannot be ruled out.

What this victory means to UP is now being hotly debated in political and official circles in the state. Thus UP in all possibility is going to be a major battleground between re-energized SP-Congress and ruling Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), which has entered into a pact with the Left Front (LF) and United National Progressive Alliance.

The battle between SP and BSP is likely to intensify in the days to come. The friendly government at the Centre may also come in handy in enthusing the sullen SP cadres, who had been at the receiving end in the last one year.

Even though Yadav had firmly denied the possibility of joining the UPA government, party sources here said, "There is rethinking in the party." The SP had already sewed an electoral alliance with the Congress in the state.

The SP leaders, after losing the 2007 assembly election, were under pressure of the ruling dispensation. Even some MLAs left the party to join the BSP. Yadav has already accused the state government of registering at least one-lakh cases against party workers.

On the other hand, Chaudhury Ajit Singh-led Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) has thrown its lot behind the BSP. While the RLD has some pockets of influence in west, the LF base in the state is negligible. The RLD has also demanded at least eight Lok Sabha seats and support to the demand of Harit Pradesh from the BSP. However, the BSP has not yet officially reacted to the demand of the RLD. Reports from Jatland (western UP) also indicated hostile reception to the RLD's decision to jump on the BSP's bandwagon.

The RLD is banking on the Jat-Dalit-Muslim alliance to sail through in the Lok Sabha elections. However, age-old Jat-Jatav animosity in western UP would be hard to end amicably.

The LF and UNPA move to communalize the Indo-US nuclear deal to mobilize the Muslim community has also failed to take off in UP. Except a handful of Lucknow-based Ulema (clerics) who opposed the deal, there was hardly any visible mass opposition to the issue. If Shia cleric Maulana Kalbe Jawad and Sunni's Maulana Khalid Rashid came out against the deal, the Ulema of Darul Uloom Deoband and Bareilly sect condemned "Islamisation" of the nuclear deal.

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