The fall of the elephant

March 14, 2012 | Filed under: In India,Your Opinion | Posted by: Pooja

Uttar Pradesh is a land of complexities. It has low per capita income, literacy rates and a dismal Human Development Index and is riddled with a caste dominated political matrix. When the polls were greeted by a high turnout, the political pundits sat up, waiting for the results.

It is an understatement to say that the poll results took the country by surprise. Exit Polls were inadequate to predict the results in Uttar Pradesh, the populous centre of the Hindi heartland.

Anti incumbency seemed to be in the air, as the Uttar Pradesh results were flashed over and over on the news channels. Mayawati’s tenure as the Chief Minister of the State has hardly been untainted. The pinnacle of the 2007 election was the Dalit-Brahmin allegiance approach of BSP. It seems the perfect strategy to win over the land, but the actual implementation falls short of expectations. Dalits and the upper castes have long been at loggerheads, and to introduce a scheme for the betterment of one, resulted in displeasing the other. The result was that no concrete steps were taken to develop the state. Allegations of corruption, rise in her personal wealth, media exposure to her quirks (remember the shoes?) and the attempt to salvage the public opinion by firing ministers left and right have contributed to her eventual fall.

Mulayam Singh Yadav, the yesteryear politician, who had been written off for good after his failure in the 2007 elections has made a comeback, with his son in tow. Akhilesh Yadav, an engineer by education, and a politican by profession spearheaded the Samajwadi Party’s rise to power. Samajwadi party, had been likened to a ‘political party of goons and criminals’, but in the prior months, the party worked hard to clean it’s act up, and played on the anti-BSP sentiments in the public.

Congress could not gain a strong position, despite Rahul Gandhi and his pre-election campaigns. Uttar Pradesh is essentially a regional party stronghold, and the generalities of the national parties fail to work in the state, as demonstrated by the number of seats secured by Congress and BJP.

It’s the question of the sandstone elephants and bronze statues of Dalit leaders that plagues me. Mayawati had stated that SP will destroy them as soon as it gains office, but a calm Akhilesh Yadav announced that demolishing the statues was the last thing on his mind. Indeed, throwing open the parks to the public to obtain revenue should be a prime agenda, or the sheer maintained and upkeep of the memorials will drag the budget down. It is the sandstone elephant that has replaced the proverbial albatross around Mayawati’s neck.

You may also like to read:

Under the Heel of a Brahman – Manu
A beautiful woman clad in a burkha stepped onto the metro. Was she beautiful? The woman covered from head to toe was truly beautiful in every sense of the word. Her slender hands were the only thin...
Political war starts in UP with Rahul Gandhi’s criticism
The Congress General Secretary's comments at his rally yesterday on migrants from UP going to other states to beg triggered a big war of words. "How long will you begin Maharashtra for work? How l...
Under The Heel Of A Brahmin – Movies and Literature
I felt like Virginia Woolf, in ‘A Room Of One’s Own’ the only difference being that she looked for literature by women in the 18th century, while I frantically searched for movies solely about Dali...
Hail the coalition government!
There has been an unprecedented two terms for the United Progressive Alliance government, withstanding many periodic jolts. Whenever they have been cornered, they have ensured that some party s...
Changes I want to see in India
The Indian Fusion asked on facebook: What is the first thing you would like to change in India? Answers: 1. Jwalant Parekh : The caste system because it creates divide results in violance...
Sunanda Pushkar subtly battles against Narendra Modi
In a recent campaigning in Himachal Pradesh, Narendra Modi made the mistake that many politicians have been making of late - he made a highly gender biased personal hit on Shashi Tharoor (Minister ...
Babri Masjid Demolition, 20 years have passed, but things have not changed
Time heals all wounds, but some remain, especially if that wound was made to your homeland by your own people. When it happened, 6 December 1992, I was merely 2 years old and so have no recollectio...
Why always the woman?
We are human beings with a number of emotions like love, affection, fear, hatred and so on imbibed in us. Sometime we develop relations, most of the relations are hereditary which come to us by our...
Roti- kapda, bijli-pani; We are back to the basics for elections strategy
Just like in the game of chess, in politics too the opponents have strategically place the pawns. Though the pawns are seemingly powerless, but they build the basic attack-defense system for the pl...
The race to the Rashtrapati Bhavan
India is in a flurry. And it's all due to the highest post in the government that will soon be vacated by Mrs. Pratibha Patil. The race for Presidential post is as dramatic as the prime time serial...