The Plot Thickens

As BSP widens its social base by desperately wooing the Brahmins, the battlefield misses BJP’s most charismatic campaigner

PICTURE SPEAK

TRUSTED LIEUTENANT: Goel

Politics is all about making the right noises. But there is one silent campaigner in the ranks of the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP)—Sudhir Goel. So far it is the BSP supremo Mayawati and her alter-ego Satish Chandra Mishra, who have enjoyed the limelight. But Goel, who has been working with the party since 1996 and is its national spokesman, has attracted a lot of attention this time with the success of the party in the recent MCD elections. The BSP has won 15 seats in the 224-ward state municipal corporation and is planning an emphatic presence in the assembly elections in Delhi next year. Goel attributes the party’s victory to the local leaders who worked overtime in the run-up to the civic polls. Like the party’s founder and ideologue Kanshi Ram who picked him up for the job, Goel is a bachelor who has dedicated his life to the party. After his parents’ death he is all alone and works round-the-clock for the organisation. He has been assigned the task of trying to wean away the members of the Vaishya community from the rival camps. If Mishra at the moment is the most trusted person in BSP for dealing with legal matters and mobilising the Brahmin votes in favour of Mayawati, Goel has the task of wooing the voters from the upper castes, plan and style the campaign material.

Bloodless Vote

For the first time in the blood-stained election history of Uttar Pradesh, all was calm and quiet in the crucial first round of the assembly polls in 62 constituencies. According to the Election Commission, due to heavy security arrangements which saw 657 companies of the Central paramilitary forces being deployed at 16,000 polling stations, there were no reports of any incidents of violence or booth capturing from any part of the state. There won’t, therefore, be any re-polling, which was an unheard of in the past. Deputy Election Commissioner J.P. Prakash moved around in a chopper and conducted surprise checks to ensure unwanted elements were kept at bay.

Missing in Action

The election campaign in Uttar Pradesh, the most populated and politically significant of all states, has become colourless not because the Election Commission has reined in the political parties and disciplined them with orders to campaign within the stipulated norms but also due to the absence of the BJP veteran Atal Bihari Vajpayee. The former mp and the best orator among the politicians is said to be not keeping well. Perhaps, it would be the first election in the country when the star campaigner, Vajpayee, is not in the form.

Be it the first prime minister of the country, Jawahar Lal Nehru or the present Manmohan Singh, all of them have been on the political agenda of Vajpayee, who without hurting any of his rivals would push them all on the back foot with his oratorical skill.

The current assembly elections in the state are the most crucial for the party, with they being the No. 3 after the SP and the BSP. A repeat of the poor performance by the BJP in the state will be a serious setback. The presence of Vajpayee is more than required because the party is facing desertion of the Brahmins who have shifted allegiance to the BSP and there is no leader other than him who has the capability to make an impact on the minds of the voters.

-compiled by Farzand Ahmed and Subhash Mishra\

POLLSPEAK

“I promise, if elected to power, I will not allow Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav and Amar Singh to flee the country with ill-gotten wealth.” MAYAWATI, BSP LEADER “Do you want me to go to jail or do you want to work? If your answer is ‘no’ to jail threats, then vote me to power.” MULAYAM SINGH YADAV, CHIEF MINISTER “The difference between SP and BSP is that while one has development and welfare in its manifesto the other has only jails in its mind.” JAYA PRADA, ACTOR & MP

Poll dons...

In the first phase of elections, 130 out of 785 candidates had criminal cases pending against them. The second phase had 102 such candidates out of a total of 792 fighting from 58 constituencies. According to the up Election Watch, all major parties are virtually vying with each other in fielding candidates with criminal records. BSP fielded 22 such candidates in the first phase and 18 in the second. BJP’s line-up: 16 candidates with criminal record in the first phase and 14 in the second round. SP fielded 12 in the first phase and 19 in the second while Congress had 9 and 15. In the outgoing assembly, 203 MLAs in a house of 403, have criminal records.

...and millionaires

Out of 792 candidates in the second phase, there are 126 millionaires. Of them, 10 belong to BSP, 5 each to SP and RLD, 2 belong to Congress and 1 to the Jan Morcha. An astounding 509 candidates don’t even have a permanent account number (pan). In the first phase, there were 74 millionaires of whom 17 belonged to SP, 14 each to BSP, BJP and 11 to the Congress.

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