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- INDIA
Voting in the first phase of the Lok Sabha election 2024 begins today, April 19. All eyes are on Uttar Pradesh (UP) as votes will be cast to capture eight Lok Sabha constituencies in the agriculturally rich belt of the state in the west.
The state sends the highest number of legislators to the national Parliament. With 80 legislatures in the Lok Sabha and 31 legislatures in the upper house of the Rajya Sabha, UP is one of the most important states in Indian politics.
However, the passion displayed in the past during election campaigns is missing this time. This time the election is different. The mood of the voters is less festive and more sombre.
There is an absence of hope amongst a large number of voters. The voter seems afraid to even dream of an improved future. Sick of the false promises made by politicians over decades, voters pensively wonder today if elections will ever improve their lot in life?
“I am 80 years old. I have worked hard all my life. I have voted in every election but to this day I have no home to call my own,” a voter on a street in Lucknow said.
The voters face multiple problems. Farmers are unable to raise their income despite working hard in the fields and despite rising prices of essential commodities. Youth is unable to find employment, and women continue to feel insecure on the streets of even the capital city of Lucknow.
In the absence of gainful employment, millions of poverty stricken citizens are living off free rations doled out to them in return for their vote. Lies repeated by politicians have robbed the voter of hope and of happiness.
Exhausted by the politics of the day, the voter is in no mood to beat the drums at election time. There is no song and dance on the streets in support of politicians this election. There is an absence of witty slogans that were coined throughout the campaign, many of which had given citizens something to smile about.
A kind of voter fatigue has taken over constituencies today, snatching away the celebratory aspect of the Lok Sabha election. The razzmatazz is missing this election to be held in seven phases, beginning April 19. The results will be announced on June 5.
While the ruling party tries to impress voters with religious issues, the Opposition is making this election out to be a battle to save democracy. The Dalit and backward caste voters are fearful that the poorest of the poor in the country have the most to lose if democracy dies in the country and the Constitution of India is changed. Therefore even non Hindu contestants have visited numerous temples and have participated in Hindu rituals to attract Hindu voters.
In the Saharanpur constituency for example Hindus are roughly 58 percent of the electorate. Muslims are 42 percent of the electorate in the same constituency and their support for the lone Congress contestant Imran Masood on the ground in the first phase of voting seems solid.
Similarly the SP’s choice of candidates in many constituencies smacks of an outreach to Hindu voters. In Moradabad, where Muslims constitute around 48 percent of the electorate but for the first time, the SP has fielded a Hindu candidate, Ruchi Veera.
The Joint Press Conference
A flicker of excitement was experienced by voters on the last day of campaigning when a press conference was addressed jointly by former Chief Minister of UP and Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Akhilesh Yadav and Congress leader Rahul Gandhi. The Opposition leaders had been absent from the earlier part of the campaign when no rallies by top Congress or SP leaders were held in UP.
At the press conference Yadav declared that the I.N.D.I.A. bloc of Opposition parties will win the election across UP from Ghaziabad in the west, to Ghazipur in the east. When asked if he will contest from Amethi, Gandhi said that it is up to his party to decide whether it wants him to contest from Amethi, or not?
Last Wednesday also saw Congress General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra participate in a road show in Saharanpur that attracted a huge crowd. Yadav, Gandhi and Vadra remembered to wish the voters on Ram Navami.
Women showered flower petals on Vadra as she drove atop an open vehicle. Vadra took to the road in support of Masood in the hope of winning back Saharanpur that it had last won in 1984.
In the first phase of the Lok Sabha elections polling will take place in Saharanpur, Kairana, Muzaffarnagar, Bijnor, Nagina, Moradabad, Rampur and Pilibhit.
The Elephant Yawns
The stirring up of the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) during the last days of the campaign has been a pleasant surprise for voters. Thirty-four-year old BSP national coordinator Akash Anand had roared at rallies in UP.
Anand is the nephew and political successor of BSP chief Mayawati who kicked off the party’s campaign from Nagina. His attack on the failures of the ruling party is frontal, denting somewhat the suspicion that Mayawati’s politics these days is more about facilitating the ruling party to win elections in UP.
Anand is also critical of Bhim Army chief Chandrashekhar Azad who is contesting from Nagina. Both Anand and Azad are vying to lead the Dalit population of the state.
Nagina is the only Scheduled Cast (SC) reserved constituency in UP’s eight seats going to the polls on April 19 and 36-year-old Azad has a huge following amongst Dalits and Muslims, especially the youth. The Dalit leader’s popularity is second only to Mayawati.
The popularity of Anand remains untested so far.
BSP’s Birthplace Bijnor
Bijnor is the birthplace of the BSP. Mayawati had started her political career from Bijnor when she won the Lok Sabha by-polls in 1989. Former Lok Sabha speaker and daughter of former deputy Prime Minister Scheduled Caste leader Jagjivan Ram, Meira Kumar was defeated in Bijnor spelling the decline of the Congress in UP politics and the rise of the BSP.
Today the BSP has allowed the Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) to contest from Bijnor not perhaps with the intention of winning the Lok Sabha seat but in order to defeat the SP. Making more noise than anyone else are voters belonging to the Thakur community in west UP.
With a Thakur Chief Minister in UP, the most populous state in the country, who would have thought that the Thakur community would protest so loudly against the ruling party? But, the Thakur community is seething in rage.
At a large gathering it was decided to boycott the ruling party candidates in Muzaffarnagar, Kairana and Saharanpur Lok Sabha constituencies for allegedly neglecting the interest of the community. What this protest means in terms of winning the on-going Lok Sabha elections will be known only on June 5 when the results are announced.
