News Analysis India

Tag: Uttar Pradesh Polls

  • On visit to UP, Amit Shah coins acronym ‘JAM’ to take dig at Akhilesh over Jinnah statement

    Express News Service

    LUCKNOW: Taking a dig at the opposition, especially the Akhilesh Yadav-led Samajwadi Party, Union Home Minister Amit Shah coined an acronym ‘JAM’ to prove a point that while PM Modi used it to eradicate corruption in the country through Jan Dhan account, Aadhaar card and mobile phones, the previous Akhilesh government redefined it by showing his liking for Jinnah, Azam Khan and Mukhtar.

    The Home Minister, who was on a two-day visit to Purvanchal in Uttar Pradesh, put forth his thoughts during two back-to-back public rallies in Azamgarh and Basti. 

    In Azamgarh, Shah laid the foundation stone of a state university named after popular Rajbhar king Suheldev, while in Basti, he inaugurated the Sansad Khel Mahakumbh.

    “We brought in JAM — J for Jan-Dhan account, A for Aadhaar card, M for mobile phones, Samajwadi Party also claimed to have brought a JAM. It stands for Jinnah, Azam Khan and Mukhtar (Ansari),” Shah said while addressing a rally in Azamgarh.

    Shah’s remark comes close on the heels of the SP chief’s controversial statement on Mohammad Ali Jinnah where he had compared the Muslim League leader with Nehru, Mahatma Gandhi and Sardar Patel saying his contribution tothe country’s freedom struggle was equally great.

    Shah accused Akhilesh of appeasement in a veiled attack saying that as the UP assembly polls were inching closer, Akhilesh Yadav’s liking for Jinnah was also surfacing and he was glorifying the leader who played a key role in the nation’s partition.

    Shah also took a swipe at the previous regimes saying during their governments, Azamgarh became infamous as a safe haven for terrorists. “Azamgarh, which was portrayed as the nursery for terrorism during previous governments, will soon become a temple of Goddess Saraswati and a seat of education for the youth of eastern UP,” said Shah.

    The Home Minister invoked Maharaja Suheldev during his speech as the one who fought against the invaders to make the land free.

    Moreover, the state government decided to name the university, the foundation stone of which was laid by the Home Minister on Saturday, after Maharaja Suheldev in political symbolism to woo the Rajbhar community which makes around 12 per cent of the electorate in the eastern region. The community has a sway in over 60 seats of eastern UP.

    It may be recalled that the Suheldev Bharat Samaj Party (SBSP), led by OP Rajbhar, had contested the previous assembly election in alliance with the BJP and had bagged four seats for the first time. However, this time Rajbhar has tied up with the Samajwadi Party (SP).

    At the same time, Shah also patted the back of UP CM Yogi Adityanath for proper implementation of central schemes, apt COVID management and leading the state on the path of development during his speeches at both Azamgarh and Basti.

    He listed out the parameters of development including the state’s GDP which he claimed had gone up from Rs 10 lakh 90,000 crore to over Rs 21 lakh crore. “Similarly, during the last five years, the unemployment rate has come down from 17.5 per cent to 4.5 per cent,” claimed Shah.

    Both in Azamgarh and Basti, Shah appreciated the Yogi government over the law and order situation saying CM Yogi had rid the state of ‘mosquito and mafia’. “While JE, which used to devour many lives in the past, is no more a menace, the mafia have been forced to take refuge outside UP under the Yogi government,” he added. In Basti, Shah was all praise for CM Yogi for making the state riot-free during the last five years of his governance.

    The Home Minister then gave a religious colour to his discourse saying, “SP, BSP and Congress used to mock us over the construction of the Ram temple in Ayodhya. They can now see that a Ram temple is taking shape in Ayodhya in all its grandeur.”

    Shah also mentioned that it was due to the grit and determination of PM Modi that Article 370, the removal of which had been promised and part of the BJP manifesto since the times of the Jan Sangh, was abolished making Kashmir an integral part of the country in the true sense.

    Earlier, the Union home minister participated in the Akhil Rajbhasha Sammelan in Varanasi where he urged the people of the country to use Hindi more and more in their conversation to make it more popular as it was the pride of the country.

    “I like Hindi more than Gujarati. It is such a beautiful language. We all should take pride in using it as the national language in our daily conversation. We should never feel ashamed of the language which is a part of our rich cultural heritage,” said Shah.

  • Uttar Pradesh polls: CM Adityanath visits Kairana, promises relief to families forced to ‘leave’ town

    By PTI

    LUCKNOW: Ahead of next year’s Assembly polls, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Monday visited Kairana in Shamil district on Monday, promising compensation to some families who were allegedly forced to leave town between 2014 and 2016.

    The BJP had claimed then that scores of Hindu families had left the western UP town after receiving threats from criminals.

    The claim, however, was contested by others.

    The alleged exodus from Kairana was a big issue in the 2017 Assembly elections.

    “I have sought a report from the district administration about the families which were harmed and their members killed here in the previous Samajwadi Party regime,” Adityanath said in Kairana, adding that action has been initiated against the guilty.

    “The government will give some compensation to the victim families so that they could again carry out their business and economic activities,” Adityanath told reporters after meeting some families who had migrated from the town between 2014 and 2016, allegedly after received extortion threats.

    “I met the families and had a lunch with them,” said the CM, who was accompanied by state BJP president Swatantra Dev Singh and minister Suresh Rana.

    He said Kairana was once considered a major industrial town of the country and a centre of classical music.

    “Towns like Kairana and Kandhla faced repercussions of the criminalisation of politics in the early 1990s and the politicisation of professional criminals. Hindu businessmen and other Hindus were forced to migrate from here on a large scale,” he alleged.

    After 2017, due to our government’s policy of zero tolerance towards crime and criminals, many families have returned, he claimed.

    Adityanath said when he came to the town in 2017, people had demanded the strengthening of the police outpost and a PAC battalion.

    “The work of strengthening the outpost has already been done and today I came here for laying the foundation of a PAC battalion camp,” he added.

    Adityanath also claimed that the town is not known for criminal activities now as the process for rapid development has started.

    “A bypass road is being built to avoid traffic jam. Industrialisation has started here and locals are getting jobs,” the CM said, adding that everyone will benefit by government schemes that are not aimed at “appeasement”.

    When asked if his visit is due to the upcoming elections, Adityanath said, “There is no election at present. It’s my duty to meet every victim and if the victim is a Hindu, it is not a crime to meet him.”

    Replying to another question, he said the “exodus is also an issue.”

    In 2016, the then BJP MP Hukum Singh had claimed that close to 350 Hindus had left Kairana due to threats by criminals.

  • BJP failed to fulfil promises made to farmers in UP, says SP chief Akhilesh Yadav

    By ANI

    LUCKNOW: Ahead of the 2022 Assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav on Saturday accused the BJP-led state government of failing to fulfil the promises they had made to the farmers in their election manifesto.

    “It seems that BJP made its manifesto and threw it in the trash because they never turned through its pages. They forgot their own manifesto. They had promised that by 2022, the income of farmers will be doubled and a roadmap will be prepared for that. Today the farmer in Uttar Pradesh wants to ask, till when their incomes will be doubled?,” said Akhilesh.

    Yadav also alleged that the Yogi Adityanath-led BJP government in the state has failed to make timely payments to the Sugarcane farmers as they had promised in their manifesto.

    Raising the issue of paddy procurement on Minimum Support Price (MSP), he said, “Farmer was assured that paddy will be procured on MSP. Today, paddy is ready. But the government has failed to provide the MSP to the farmers. Moreover, they have also failed those farmers who suffered losses due to heavy rains by not giving them any compensation for that.”

    Yadav alleged that the government stopped making new Mandis and closed down the existing ones.

    “They talked about improving the agriculture infrastructure. Farmers now want to know how much the Mandis has improved and how many good works and decisions have been made for the improvement of agriculture infrastructure,” he added.

    ALSO READ: Six suspended BSP MLAs, one BJP legislator join SP ahead of 2022 Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections

    He also alleged that BJP had betrayed the people in Bundelkhand, a region that he said that ‘put its trust in BJP’.

    “Bundelkhand is still lying dry, a drought-like situation is there,” he added.

    Taking further shots at BJP, he questioned them that what it had done with the 20 thousand crore rupees it had planned to use for setting up an irrigation fund.

    Pointing out government’s failures in dairy industry, he added, “Samajwadi Party set up plants of 5 lakh litres per day in Lucknow and Bhognipur. A lot of money was given to improve existing plants in the budget. But today in Amul plants, milk from Gujarat is used, not that of our own farmers in UP.”

    He asserted that his party will form the government after 2022 assembly polls.

    “The slogan of Yogi ji will go from ‘Mera Pariwaar, Bhaajpa Pariwaar’ to ‘Mera Pariwaar, Bhaagta (running) Pariwaar,” he remarked.

    Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections are scheduled to take place early next year. 

  • Uttar Pradesh polls 2022: Secular parties vie for share of Hindutva pie

    Express News Service

    LUCKNOW: Call it BJP’s saffron rub-off: Come UP polls and you would see only the hues of Hindutva this time. Months ahead of the elections, the perception so far is that most Uttar Pradesh parties are jostling for space for claiming a share of the Hindu identity.

    Priyanka Gandhi drove the message home when she recently visited Varanasi, the constituency of PM Modi. The first thing she did was a trip to the Kashi Vishwanth temple. Then she hopped to Durga Kund and offered prayers to the fearsome Hindu Goddess.

    After launching her party’s Kisan Nyay Yatra, the Congress leader landed at Rohania with her forehead smeared with sandalwood paste. She began with shlokas from Durga Saptshati proclaiming that she was on a fast on the fourth day of Navratri.

    The Congress had started out with its ‘soft Hindutva’ approach in 2017 at the time of the Gujarat Assembly polls. Rahul Gandhi had gone on temple hopping, claiming himself to be a ‘janeudhari Hindu’. “People would have accepted a natural rendition of ‘ya devi sarva bhuteshu’ – mantras chanted for various goddesses. But these came from Priyanka, evoking an impression that it was meant to impress the voters,” says Prof AK Mishra, a political scientist.

    But guess who is the latest to join the Hindu appeasers? It is BSP chief Mayawati. At her first election rally in Lucknow on October 9, she vowed not to stop the ongoing development works at religious towns of Ayodhya, Kashi and Mathura, if voted to power. “Mayawati surprised everyone. She made it clear that her social engineering plank this time has the religious heft,” says political commentator JP Shukla.

    In the last two-three months, the BSP has conducted around 75 Prabuddh Sammelans (intellectual conferences) focusing on the Brahmins, starting the series from Ayodhya. Party general secretary Satish Mishra, while addressing the meetings, has promised to speed up the construction of the grand temple in Ayodhya.

    The SP isn’t much behind. Party chief Akhilesh Yadav launched his ‘Vijay Yatra’ on Tuesday from the banks of the Ganga in Kanpur. Earlier, addressing a public gathering in Saharanpur on Saturday, Akhilesh referred to the holy Bhagavad Gita.

    Akhilesh too has been on the temple run from Kamadgiri in Chitrakoot, Vimalnath temple at Farrukhabad and Buddha temple at Shravasti. The Aam Aadmi Party, which is entering the Uttar Pradesh Assembly poll fray for the first time, also began its campaign from Ayodhya.

  • Political parties throw enough hints Uttar Pradesh polls will pivot around Ayodhya

    By PTI

    LUCKNOW: With the upcoming assembly polls being Uttar Pradesh’s first since the verdict in the Babri Masjid case, political parties have thrown hints the battle will pivot around the issue and have used Ayodhya as a launch pad of sorts for their campaign.

    The Supreme Court’s 2019 verdict paving the way for the construction of the Ram temple at the disputed site has brought the Ayodhya issue back to the centrestage ahead of the crucial polls. Political parties including the BJP, the Samajwadi Party the BSP have been using Ayodhya to launch their campaigns as momentum builds for the 2022 polls.

    New entrants like the Asaduddin Owaisi-led AIMIM and smaller parties including the Jansatta Loktantrik Dal, led by Kunda MLA (independent) Raghuraj Pratap Singh alias Raja Bhaiya, are also using the city to being the campaigns.

    The Ayodhya assembly constituency is currently represented by the BJP’s Ved Prakash Gupta.

    With Prime Minister Narendra Modi himself performing the ‘bhoomi pujan’ on August 5, 2020 for a grand temple, and Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath frequently visiting the holy town, the saffron party has been trying to keep the issue alive.

    The BJP on September 5 began its ‘Prabudh sammelan’ (meeting of intellectuals) from Ayodhya, with its state chief Swatantra Dev Singh addressing a gathering there.

    The UP BJP president made it a point to remind people how former prime minister Indira Gandhi in 1966 had ordered firing on saints who had gathered around Parliament, while the Samajwadi Party in 1990 ordered firing on the devotees of Lord Ram in Ayodhya. “These bullets were fired on India’s culture and ideology of nationalism. The entire India reposes its faith in Lord Ram,” Singh had said.

    Elaborating on the importance Ayodhya for the BJP, its state spokesperson Manish Shukla told PTI, “After adopting a resolution in 1989 to build a Ram temple in Ayodhya, the temple town has always been close to us. For us, Lord Rama and Ram temple have been a matter of faith. They will continue to remain important for us. We have never seen it from the electoral point of view.”

    Several BJP leaders are likely to visit Ayodhya. Mayawati’s Bahujan Samaj Party, hoping to repeat its 2007 success of by harnessing its ‘Dalits-Brahmins’ formula, began its ‘Brahmin Sammelan’ from Ayodhya on July 23.

    The 2022 polls are the first in the state since the Supreme Court on November 9, 2019 ruled in favour of the construction of a Ram temple at the disputed site and directed the Centre to allot an alternative five-acre plot to the Sunni Waqf Board for building a new mosque.

    The Babri mosque in Ayodhya was demolished on December 6, 1992 by ‘karsevaks’, who claimed that an ancient Ram temple stood at the same site. On July 23, Rajya Sabha MP and BSP supremo Mayawati’s close aide Satish Chandra Misra started the party’s campaign to woo Brahmin voters by offering prayers at the Ram Janmabhoomi in Ayodhya.

    Attacking the BJP, Mishra asked the ruling party to give account of the donations collected by it in the name of the Ram temple in the past three decades.

    Samajwadi Party leader Akhilesh Yadav, whose father Mulayam Singh Yadav is often criticised by his opponents for ordering police firing on the Karsewaks after razing of the 16th century Babri mosque, has been attacking the saffron party for “playing the Ayodhya card in every elections”.

    “We are no less a devout Hindu. Netaji (Mulayam Singh Yadav) in fact has been a disciple of Lord Hanuman since his early days,” Akhilesh Yadav said recently at a TV programme hosted in Lucknow. He has also said he would visit the temple with his family after its opens for public.

    His party too used Ayodhya to launch its campaign with state unit chief Naresh Uttam participating in a function of the party — ‘khet bachaao, rozgaar bachaao’ — on September 3.

    Asked as to how much importance does the party give to Ayodhya, SP spokesperson Juhie Singh said, “It is important for us, and it was a major halt of the yatra undertaken by party’s UP unit chief Naresh Uttam. In 2012, the SP had won Ayodhya Assembly constituency.”

    “When the SP was in power, the biggest package of development was given to Ayodhya, whether it was the 16-kosi parikrama, plantation of trees in accordance with the Ramayan, the setting up of a museum or the beautification of ghats and various pilgrimage sites. The Purvanchal Expressway was realligned was the SP’s regime, so that it covers Ayodhya,” she said.

    AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi began his party’s campaign with a public meeting at Rasulabad in Ayodhya on September 7. The venue was strategically chosen as it is near Dhannipur where a mosque is coming up as per the apex court judgement.

    The Congress, however, did not seem to be endorsing political parties using Ayodhya as a launch venue for the campaigns. “For the Congress, Ayodhya, Mathura, Kashi, Mahadeva and Deva Sharif (in Barabanki district) are the same. The party has already announced plans to take out a 12,000 km-long yatra through villages and towns of Uttar Pradesh ahead of the Assembly polls next year,” UP Congress spokesperson Abbas Haider said.

    The decision to take out the “Congress Pratigya Yatra: Hum Vachan Nibhayenge” was taken at a meeting AICC general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra held with the party’s advisory and strategy committee here, the party said in a statement.

  • AAP to contest all seats in 2022 Uttar Pradesh polls, not in talks for any alliance: Sanjay Singh

    By PTI

    LUCKNOW: Asserting that Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) would contest all 403 assembly seats in Uttar Pradesh, senior leader Sanjay Singh has said it would be a mistake to consider AAP a minnow as it had emerged “stronger” than the Congress in the recent panchayat polls.

    The Arvind Kejriwal-led AAP made it clear that it is not in talks with any other party for an alliance in the Uttar Pradesh assembly election due early next year. “Our party is stronger than the Congress in the state. While the Congress won 40 seats in panchayat polls, we scored a victory in 83 panchayats. AAP got over 40 lakh votes in these polls, where 1600 party candidates contested,” Singh, who is AAP’s UP incharge, told PTI in an interview.

    The Congress was reduced to seven seats in the 2017 election to the 403-member UP Assembly. The AAP had earlier tested poll waters in the 2014 and 2019 Parliamentary elections on some selected seats in UP without any success.

    After coming to power in Delhi, it emerged as the main opposition party in Punjab and has been trying to expand its base in other states like Goa, Uttarakhand and Gujarat. Delhi Chief Minister Kejriwal had himself contested against Prime Minister Narendra Modi from Varanasi in 2014 and stood second ahead of the Congress and the Samajwadi party nominees.

    AAP had also contested three seats of Saharanpur, Aligarh and Gautam Budh Nagar in UP but could not do much. “We are preparing to contest on all 403 seats alone. We are presently not in talks for an alliance with any other party. Our focus is to strengthen our base in the state and in the past one and a half months, we have made over one crore members,” Singh said.

    “The party has made Vidhan Sabha incharges in 100-150 seats and our leaders are meeting those who want to contest,” said 49-year-old Singh who hails from Sultanpur in Uttar Pradesh. Singh, who is a Rajya Sabha MP, said the main issue to be raised by the AAP in the assembly elections “will be BJP’s nationalism versus AAP’s nationalism”.

    “BJP’s nationalism is fake. Its nationalism is full of hatred and communalism. At the same time, the nationalism of the AAP is providing good education, good health, free electricity,free water, women’s security and happiness,” he said, He hit out at the BJP, claiming it was “afraid” of the AAP’s model of governance and was indulging in vindictive politics.

    “Sixteen cases including that of sedition were filed against me. I got a stay from the Supreme Court in a sedition case. The BJP is doing vindictive politics. Our office here was closed by them. We are facing them strongly,” he said.

    “AAP’s model of governance focuses on education, health, education and providing basic facilities to the poor and needs. Our model is an answer to casteist and communal politics played by the BJP. Providing jobs, unemployment allowance and better prices to farmers are among the issues the party will take up,” Singh said.

    The outcome of the UP assembly polls is considered important as it would reflect on the 2024 general election. The opposition sees an opportunity against the BJP in the bellwether state especially due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

    While the SP and BSP have already launched their election campaign to woo various communities, the Congress under the leadership of its General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra is sparing no effort to revive the party at the grassroots level.

    Hyderabad MP Asaduddin Owaisi’s AIMIM, AAP and over a dozen small caste-centric regional parties have also announced that they are entering the ring in the politically significant state. Singh said that they will highlight the “failures” of Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath during the past four and a half years.

    “We are exposing them at the grassroots level. This government as promised during the polls made ‘Shamshan’ (cremation ground) in every village. In corona pandemic, every village became ‘Shamshan’ and people died without treatment and lack of medicines,” he alleged.

    “The government failed to control crime and criminal activities. Incidents like Hathras and others exposed tall claims on law and order. There are scams galore and even Kumbh and Ram Temple were not spared by scamsters,” he alleged.

    In the BJP regime, the state went “backwards” as they have “no concept of development”, he said adding that without increasing the “purchasing power” of people there will be no economic boost. About the presence of Asaduddin Owaisi’s AIMIM in UP polls and other fronts of smaller parties, Singh said, “Everyone has the right to contest in democracy.”

    Kejriwal, who entered politics after gaining the spotlight during Gandhian Anna Hazare’s movement for the Lokpal legislation, is also spearheading the party’s campaign in neighbouring Uttarakhand, where the AAP is projecting itself as an alternative to the BJP and the Congress.

  • Ahead of UP polls, ex-legislatures Ambika Chaudhary, Sibghatullah Ansari join Samajwadi Party

    By PTI

    LUCKNOW: Mafia-turned-politician Mukhtar Ansari’s brother and former BSP MLA Sibghatullah Ansari joined the Samajwadi Party along with his supporters here on Saturday, ahead of the assembly polls in Uttar Pradesh slated for early next year.

    Former minister Ambika Chaudhary who had quit the SP to join the BSP also returned to the Samajwadi Party along with his supporters.

    Welcoming the leaders to the party, Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav expressed confidence that they would give further strength to the party and also send a message among the people that it will form government in the state after the polls.

    Attacking the ruling BJP, Yadav alleged that the youth did not get jobs and traders were ruined under its government.

    He also alleged that the BJP government left the poor helpless during the coronavirus crisis when they needed its support the most.

    “I am happy that the people of Uttar Pradesh want change and are eager to walk on the path of development and prosperity,” Yadav said.

    In a tweet earlier, Yadav announced that his Samajwadi Party will organise ‘Khiladi Ghera’ demonstrations across the state on the occasion of National Sports Day on Sunday.

    He appealed to sportspersons to join the protests and “shake the foundation of irresponsible power”.

    Ambika Chaudhary, who had served as minister in the governments led by Mulayam Singh Yadav and Akhilesh Yadav, had quit the SP in 2016.

    He had unsuccessfully contested the 2017 assembly election on a BSP ticket.

    In the recent zila panchayat chairperson election, the Samajwadi Party fielded his son as its candidate.

    After the election of his son to the post of zila panchayat chairman, there were indications that Ambika Chaudhary would return to the SP.

    Ambika Chaudhary became emotional and cried as he was welcomed to the SP by Akhilesh Yadav.

    Sibghatullah Ansari had won the 2007 assembly election from Mohammadabad constituency of Ghazipur district on a Samajwadi Party ticket and again contested and won from the seat in 2012 on a ticket of his brothers’ party Quami Ekta Dal.

    In 2017, he joined the BSP and unsuccessfully contested the election.

    Asked if his brother Afzal Ansari who is the BSP MP from Ghazipur would also join the SP, Sibghatullah Ansari said it was for his brother to decide.

  • UP assembly polls: AAP accuses Om Prakash Rajbhar of lying, denies alliance talks with SBSP

    By PTI
    NEW DELHI: There is no talk of an alliance between the Aam Aadmi Party and the SBSP, AAP leader Sanjay Singh clarified on Tuesday amid reports of a tie-up between the two parties ahead of assembly polls in Uttar Pradesh next year.

    Singh also accused Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party chief Om Prakash Rajbhar of lying on Monday when he said he will meet AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal this week to firm up an alliance for the elections.

    “O P Rajbhar ji is lying. No meeting of Kejriwal ji with him has been fixed. Nor is there any talk of alliance with them,” Singh said on Twitter.

    “Whatever news is being published about the meeting of Om Prakash Rajbhar Ji with Arvind Kejriwal Ji is false and baseless…,” the Rajya Sabha MP and AAP UP in-charge added.

    Rajbhar had said he would meet Kejriwal on July 17 in the presence of Singh.

    “During the meeting talks will be held to include the AAP in the Bhagidari Sankalp Morcha as an ally,” Rajbhar said.

    The Morcha is a front of small parties led by Rajbhar.

  • UP block-panchayat polls: BJP claims victory in most seats; Opposition alleges misuse of machinery

    By PTI
    LUCKNOW: The BJP on Saturday claimed victory on 635 of the total 825 seats of block panchayat chiefs in Uttar Pradesh, where the local bodies elections were held amid scattered incidents of violence with the opposition alleging misuse of official machinery by the ruling party.

    Polling for the 476 posts of block panchayat chiefs was held from 11 AM to 3 PM, following which counting of votes had commenced. A total of 349 candidates for the block panchayat chief posts were elected unopposed on Friday, the last day for the withdrawal of nomination papers, State Election Commissioner Manoj Kumar said.

    A spokesman of the Commission said that though at most of the places, counting had been completed, in some areas it was still continuing and the results were expected late in the night.

    According to state police, clashes and other untoward incidents were reported from 17 districts during the election process and orders have been issued to respective district police heads to take strict action against those responsible for it.

    Victory processions have not been allowed and officials were keeping a strict eye on the situation, the state police said in a statement.

    Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath held a press conference at the BJP headquarter and claimed victory on 635 seats, where counting had been completed, and attributed the success to the teamwork of the government and party organisation.

    Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah and other top BJP leaders congratulated the state unit for the performance. “The benefits that the people have got from the Yogi Adityanath government’s policies and public interest schemes have been reflected in the party’s massive victory. All the party workers deserve congratulations for this victory,” PM Modi tweeted.

    The panchayat election results are an important morale-booster for the BJP ahead of assembly polls next year in the politically crucial state as it had drawn a lot of flak over its handling of the COVID19 pandemic.

    Chief Minister Adityanath also praised the State Election Commission for conducting peaceful and fair elections. “The contribution of the State Election Commission in conducting the peaceful and fair elections was praiseworthy. Getting such a massive election process peacefully, in a state where democracy was mortgaged to professional criminals and mafia on the basis of caste religion and sects…Every citizen and party can fight election now peacefully,” Yogi said.

    However, the opposition parties accused the BJP government of misusing official machinery in the elections and unleashing anarchy. In a statement, Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav alleged that the BJP had “forcibly” captured the posts of block chiefs with the help of government machinery and called it an insult of the mandate.

    “The BJP government has no faith in democracy and the Constitution,” he said and alleged candidates were “abducted openly” and those opposing these tactics were being harassed.The former chief minister said that his party had given a memorandum to the state Election Commissioner about malpractices and rigging, but no action was taken. “Democracy in Uttar Pradesh has been held hostage by BJP,” he alleged.

    Hitting out at the BJP government, BSP chief Mayawati alleged that “jungle raj is prevailing” in the state. “There has been widespread violence in the panchayat polls, and there was indecent behaviour with a woman in Lakhimpur Kheri.This is highly condemnable. Is this their (BJP’s) rule of law and democracy? This is something to ponder upon,” she said.

    The Congress too slammed the BJP government, with party leader Rahul Gandhi derisively saying that the poll violence has been renamed “masterstroke” in the state. Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra alleged that the BJP had “crossed” all limits to stop the nomination of a woman in the polls.

    Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee’s media and communication department convenor Lalan Kumar alleged that “anarchy is being spread by the leaders and workers of the BJP”. “BJP workers armed with bombs, bullets and sticks are making their district panchayat presidents and block chiefs and it is surprising that the entire administration is playing a big role in the murder of democracy,” he alleged.

    According to a report from Sonbhadra, after the election of the BJP candidate in Nagwan block, SP workers alleged rigging in the counting and created a ruckus in which policemen including a Circle Officer and a former chairman of Robertsganj Municipality were injured. Some vehicles were also damaged by the miscreants.

    Sonbhadra SP Amarendra Prasad Singh said that in Nagwan block after BJP candidate Alok Singh was declared the winner, SP workers started protesting and pelted stones when police tried to clear the area, prompting the cops to lathi-charge.

    CO Sadar Ashish Mishra and a policeman were injured in this incident, he said. Several purported videos of clashes between supporters of rival parties were also posted on social media. A total of 1,778 nomination papers were received for 825 posts of the block panchayat chiefs, of which 68 were cancelled and 187 withdrawn.

    A total of 1,710 candidates were left in the fray for the elections held on Saturday.

  • UP assembly polls: Akhilesh Yadav not to align with big players but open to tie-ups with small parties

    By Express News Service
    LUCKNOW: Just a few days after the Mayawati-led Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) announced to go solo in the next assembly polls in Uttar Pradesh, the Akhilesh Yadav-led Samajwadi Party (SP) announced its decision not to align with any major players.

    “As per the aspirations of our workers, we’ll not have an alliance with any major/big parties, but will certainly have tie-ups with small parties. Chacha se bhi baat karenge (I’ll talk to uncle Shivpal Singh Yadav also) while partnering with smaller parties,” the SP chief and ex-UP CM Akhilesh Yadav said on his birthday on Thursday.

    This announcement by the ex-UP CM raised the possibility of patch up with his uncle and ex-UP cabinet minister Shivpal Singh Yadav, who since 2018 has his own party, the Pragatisheel Samajwadi Party.

    Shivpal, the younger sibling of SP patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav had severed ties with his nephew Akhilesh just a few months before the 2017 assembly polls in UP.

    Recently, there have been unconfirmed reports of the melting of ice between chacha and bhatija (uncle and nephew) and the recent pictures of the uncle-nephew duo together at a family wedding strengthens that possibility. However, Shivpal Singh Yadav had publicly said that he will work only on building an alliance of smaller parties, including Asaduddin Owaisi’s AIMIM to fight out the ruling BJP in the 2022 polls in UP.

    Importantly, the unopposed election of the SP candidate for the post of chairperson of district panchayat in the Yadav family’s home Etawah district could only happen with Shivpal’s support.

    The family feud in the Yadav family headed by Mulayam has been politically costing the family in UP since 2017 assembly polls, where the Akhilesh Yadav led party came up with its worst performance with just 47 seats and 21.62% votes — 177 seats less than its 2012 tally of 224. Even an alliance with Congress and RLD didn’t help against the BJP’s historic majority of 312 seats.

    In the 2019 Lok Sabha polls also, SP shelved its long-standing bitterness with Mayawati-led BSP, but the outcome of the alliance was more in favour of the elephant symbol party and than SP’s bicycle symbol as the BSP increased its tally from zero to 10 while the latter only managed to hold on to its 2014 tally of five seats.  

    Over the last few months, the Akhilesh Yadav led SP has been working at cobbling a vote bank of OBC (Yadavs and other OBC castes) along with non Jatav scheduled castes and the Muslims to return to power in 2022 polls.

    The SP’s strategy to align only with smaller parties seems to have been driven by the success of BJP’s similar strategy in the 2017 assembly polls and the 2019 general elections in the politically crucial state.

    While the SP has already aligned with small party Mahan Dal (which had sided with Congress in 2019 Lok Sabha polls), it’s also eyeing tie-ups with Om Prakash Rajbhar’s SBSP (a former BJP ally) and NISHAD Party (presently in alliance with ruling BJP) to eat into the BJP’s non-Yadav OBC and non-Jatav scheduled caste votes. The OBC comprises over 45% of UP’s total voters.

    Reacting to SP chief Akhilesh Yadav’s announcement of not aligning with any major political party in 2022 polls, BSP chief and ex UP CM Mayawati tweeted that it is the party’s anti-Dalit mindset, which has made all major political parties stay away from it.