At last, the “Mini general elections of 2017” are over and the results too have been declared. The results of the five states viz. Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Punjab, Goa and Manipur need detailed analysis as the outcome were entirely different from the exit polls which were telecast by all the channels. By and large as expected, the BJP’s performance overall was stupendous, winning the mighty Uttar Pradesh state and Uttarakhand on its own. The results once again endorse the fact that the people cannot be taken for granted and fooled all times.
Let’s go to UP. None of the exit polls predicated that BJP would even touch the “majority seats number (202)”. However, contrary to all “exit polls figures”, the saffron party won thumbs down with a brute majority figure of 312 seats and its allies have won 13 seats. Not a mean achievement at all. The Samajwadi Party and its ally Congress could not even touch 70 seats. Whether it was a drama enacted by the father and son duo and the uncles’ too or there was really a family feud, the people of UP taught SP a hard lesson. They felt insecure and that there could be uncertainty and instability if the SP was to retain power in the state. Congress could even manage to reach a double digit figure. People knew for example that even in Amethi no development had taken place despite representation of this segment by Congress supremos for decades. Mayawati’s Bahujan Samaj Party was expected to lose but certainly not so pathetically. It managed to win only 19 seats. The fact is that for all Mayawati has been talking loud about the empowerment of “Dalits and OBCs “everytime. However, these communities knew that they had been used only for the sake of gaining votes. On the other hand, she had prospered enormously, Dalits and OBCs continued to remain backward under her regime. Now, Mayawati is demanding re-election with ballot papers. How ridiculous? Why can’t she accept the fact and the pulse of voters and accept defeat gracefully? Now, for next five years BJP is very safely placed in UP.
Incidentally people were asking why none other than the PM, Narendra Modi himself should campaign for the assembly elections in UP. He had to come down to the arena and the political battlefield as he had been personally attacked by combined opposition parties. Many leaders like Rahul Gandhi, Akhilesh Yadav, Mayawati , Lalu Prasad Yadav and others who rather spewed venom on him and with choicest “abuses“ this time. Yes, Modi too had to retort the same way and managed to win mandate. Like in Deoband segment which has 80 per cent Muslims and in other constituencies too, BJP candidates were elected with good margins.
In Punjab, Congress was expected to win. However, AAP was also projected to emerge victorious by winning large number of seats. But the Kejriwal led party managed to win only 20 seats. Residents of Punjab did not get carried away or fooled by the tactics and the gimmicks of AAP and they very well gauged from its performance in Delhi. However, contrary to exit polls figures which showed only 5-7 for Shiromani Akali Dal-BJP, they won a better figure of 18 seats. It’s however, better that the people did not choose a new party APP, to form the government in this sensitive border state but preferred the known devil “Congress”.
(This is the first part of the article and the remaining portion will continue tomorrow)
(The views expressed by the author in the article are his/her own.)
