NATIONAL POLITICS
The majority of the candidates elected - as many as 70 per cent are independents. As far as parties are concerned, the BJP has emerged as number one. The Samajwadi Party of former Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav and the Bahujan Samajwadi Party of Mr. Kanshi Ram have been badly mauled. The Congress as well as the Congress-T stand nowhere. The BJP has bagged the majority of the Mayoral positions in the 11 Municipal Corporations, including Lucknow of the newly-elected members of the Lucknow Municipal.
The UP civic elections are quite significant and can rightly be described as mini-general election in view of the fact that it entailed filling up as many as 11,000 seats of presidents and members of various categories of local bodies from among 48,000 candidates all over the State. With as many as 1.84 crore voters participating and the turn-out ranging between 70 and 95 per cent, it was undoubtedly a massive exercise which may indicate the trends likely to be witnessed during the forthcoming Lok Sabha and Assembly elections in the State.
The poll outcome must have come as a damper to the ambitions and political intrigues of Mr. M.S. Yadav who is busy making electoral alliances. Thanks to another former Chief Minister Ms. Mayawati, her BSP is in no better a position either. The near rout of the Congress must have come as another shock to its leaders and the rank and file. The poll outcome makes it clear that the people are fed up with caste-based politics and if they voted for independents or the BJP as the second choice, it was because there was none at position number one.
BJP's Success Editorial, The Indian Express, 29 Nov., 1995
The BJP has reasons to be satisfied with the outcome of the recent civic elections in Uttar Pradesh. Although the party was always known to have considerable influence in the urban areas, the results from the various Nagar palika parishads and Nagar panchayats are bound to act as a morale booster. Although the victory of a large number of independents, who will gradually reveal their true colors, has shown that the BJP has not had its way everywhere, even then it has done much better as a party than its main rivals in the field - the Samajwadi Party and the Bahujan Samaj Party. True, just as the BJP is largely known as an urban outfit, the strongholds of the SP and the BSP are mainly in the countryside, and only a contest encompassing both the sectors can give a correct picture of the State's political scene.
On their part, the SP and the BSP will have to take a long hard look at their own less than satisfactory performance. Even if it is acknowledged that they never had much of a presence in the towns, the outcome will probably make them realize that such verdicts often have a psychological impact on other segments of the population. It is not impossible that the collapse of the two successive coalition governments involving these two parties had affected their chances, especially since the BJP is quite adept at projecting itself as a stabilizing force. Of the others, the Congress has shown that it continues to remain a party of virtually no consequence in India's largest State. The Janata Dal, too, is nowhere in the picture.
BJP Juggernaut Editorial, The Pioneer, 30 November, 1995
The BJP has come to acquire the position of pre- eminence in Uttar Pradesh politics. The results of the last two Assembly elections in the State have conclusively shown that the BJP has been able to forge itself as a viable first party- a position enjoyed by the Congress till a few years ago. Now, by winning eight of the 11 mayoral seats, 71 of the 196 chairperson's seats in the city boards, and 97 of the 418 seats in town areas, the Hindutva party has once again proved that it is the single largest party.It would not be easy to explain away the civic election results by dubbing it as an "urban" party.
However, it would be equally wrong on the part of the BJP to view these results as an affirmation of its aggressive Hindutva ideology, or of its unclear stand on a host of issues, including Swadeshi. What has obviously. helped it most is the disunity in the opposition ranks and the moribund state of the Congress organization. The Janata Dal of 1989 does not exist any more... where... group led by Mr. Mulayam Singh Yadav has come to be regarded as the strongest in comparison with the Janata Dal and Samajwadi Janata Party (SJP) of Chandra Shekhar. Mr. Ajit Singh's joining the Congress may not have helped the party but it has certainly done harm to the Janata Dal. Mr. Singh's traditionally anti-Congress base among the western U.P. Jats and other backward castes had shifted to the BJP in the past Lok Sabha and Assembly elections. Now with him being in the Congress, there is not much hope that the JD or its offshoots can regain it(though) SP and JD have of late come closer. Mr. Yadav's optimism about straight contests between the BJP and a united opposition in the forthcoming Lok Sabha and Assembly elections does not look convincing.
The results are bound to give impetus to efforts of forging poll alliance among the non-Congress parties which are trying to forge a third force. However, the rift between the SP and the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) is a big impediment. Any effective antidote to the BJP can be formulated only if the leaders resolve to assign a secondary role to their ambitions and give first priority to defeating the BJP. Otherwise, nobody will be able to stop the Hindutva party's juggernaut.
