04-14-2007, 02:39 AM
Pioneer on second Phase of the UP POll
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->BSP's Sanskritisation set to change equations
Sidharth Mishra | Bijnore
Contrary to the subaltern support and campaign, which Mayawati has exhibited in the past several elections, this time around <b>the BSP has certainly moved towards, how sociologist MN Srinivas had put it, Sanskritisation.</b> Driving through Ghaziabad, Meerut and Muzaffarnagar, the blue flags are definitely making themselves visible. Along with the adoption of Brahmins as party candidates, the BSP has also adopted Brahminical methods of electioneering.
The party chief is not running any advertisement campaign. Nonetheless, Mayawati has featured at equal footing with Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav in the media blitzkrieg let loose by Samajwadi Party. Her rival has projected Mayawati in worse than macabre proposition. However, her upper caste admirers, wearing BSP tickets on their sleeves, are sponsoring full page 'news coverage' in the local editions of the national Hindi dailies. These news features are in prose what Lalu Chalisa was in verse.
Mayawati, with Brahmin purohits (priests) and Chauhan ladyya (warriors), this time around is certainly moving with the trappings of the front-runner. But will front-runner would materialise into being the winner? Nobody gives Mayawati a chance of becoming the Chief Minister. The Congress is immaterial, the Samajwadi Party support is ruled out and in the BJP, even at the talk of a post-poll alliance there is great resentment at the grassroots.
With two crucial phases of UP election over, there is just one point clear in the very complex political situation, BSP has peaked but it is also finding it difficult to go further. The limitations of a casteist and sectarian political movement is tearing the BSP at its seams. <b>The U-turn from Tilak, tarazu aur talwar maro inko joote chaar" to Brahmin sankh bajaega haathi badhta jayega has created an ideological dilemma among her core voters </b>- the Dalits. Bijnore, from where Mayawati was initiated into electoral politics in mid-1980s by late Kanshi Ram, mirrors the 'corruption' of the original Dalit agenda best. Among the seven Vidhan Sabha seats falling in Bijnore Lok Sabha constituency, the BSP's prospects are best protected by the land-holding upper caste Thakur like Yashpal Singh Chauhan in Sheohara and Ashok Rana in Dhampur. On the reserved seats of Najibabad and Nagina, the BSP is still to emerge a clear front-runner. In both Najibabad and Nagina, Dalits and Muslims can together form an invincible combination. But it is not happening. In the former, CPM candidate, supported by Samajwadi Party, is the front-runner. BSP's flag-bearer here is a former judge, who decided to ride on elephant when he failed to get the lotus symbol. In Nagina, the BSP is again paying for abrupt Sanskritisation. She has fielded controversial bureaucrat RK Singh's wife Omwati. The front-runner here is a BSP veteran Manoj Paras, contesting on Samajwadi Party ticket.
Her efforts to checkmate her rivals by fielding forward caste candidates in wholesale on the face of it looks to have checkmated the gameplan of parties like the BJP and, to an extent, the Congress.<b> But she is facing the challenge at her own game by her bete noires Samajwadi Party, which has fielded several ex-BSP members on the cycle symbol.</b>
<b>The rise of Mayawati has brought about one perceptible change in the UP politics. The Dalits, who were kept away by the upper castes during elections, are certainly now coming out in large numbers to vote. </b>Their average presence on each of the seats is in the vicinity of 10 to 12 per cent. With caste as the sole agenda, the BSP is increasingly feeling the handicap to move into the category of a party able to form a Government on its own.
A hung House, says Exit poll
New Delhi: An exit poll held after the second phase of UP election on Friday predicted a hung Assembly with the BSP and ruling SP running neck and neck. The poll conducted by NDTV projected the BSP emerging as the single largest party with seats between 115-125, while Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav's party was likely to bag 110-120 seats in the 403-member Assembly. It projected the Bharatiya Janata Party to be following closely with 95-105 seats. The Congress would get 35-45 seats. Others would win 20-30 seats, it said. Meanwhile, 46 per cent voter turnout was reported on Friday.
<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->BSP's Sanskritisation set to change equations
Sidharth Mishra | Bijnore
Contrary to the subaltern support and campaign, which Mayawati has exhibited in the past several elections, this time around <b>the BSP has certainly moved towards, how sociologist MN Srinivas had put it, Sanskritisation.</b> Driving through Ghaziabad, Meerut and Muzaffarnagar, the blue flags are definitely making themselves visible. Along with the adoption of Brahmins as party candidates, the BSP has also adopted Brahminical methods of electioneering.
The party chief is not running any advertisement campaign. Nonetheless, Mayawati has featured at equal footing with Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav in the media blitzkrieg let loose by Samajwadi Party. Her rival has projected Mayawati in worse than macabre proposition. However, her upper caste admirers, wearing BSP tickets on their sleeves, are sponsoring full page 'news coverage' in the local editions of the national Hindi dailies. These news features are in prose what Lalu Chalisa was in verse.
Mayawati, with Brahmin purohits (priests) and Chauhan ladyya (warriors), this time around is certainly moving with the trappings of the front-runner. But will front-runner would materialise into being the winner? Nobody gives Mayawati a chance of becoming the Chief Minister. The Congress is immaterial, the Samajwadi Party support is ruled out and in the BJP, even at the talk of a post-poll alliance there is great resentment at the grassroots.
With two crucial phases of UP election over, there is just one point clear in the very complex political situation, BSP has peaked but it is also finding it difficult to go further. The limitations of a casteist and sectarian political movement is tearing the BSP at its seams. <b>The U-turn from Tilak, tarazu aur talwar maro inko joote chaar" to Brahmin sankh bajaega haathi badhta jayega has created an ideological dilemma among her core voters </b>- the Dalits. Bijnore, from where Mayawati was initiated into electoral politics in mid-1980s by late Kanshi Ram, mirrors the 'corruption' of the original Dalit agenda best. Among the seven Vidhan Sabha seats falling in Bijnore Lok Sabha constituency, the BSP's prospects are best protected by the land-holding upper caste Thakur like Yashpal Singh Chauhan in Sheohara and Ashok Rana in Dhampur. On the reserved seats of Najibabad and Nagina, the BSP is still to emerge a clear front-runner. In both Najibabad and Nagina, Dalits and Muslims can together form an invincible combination. But it is not happening. In the former, CPM candidate, supported by Samajwadi Party, is the front-runner. BSP's flag-bearer here is a former judge, who decided to ride on elephant when he failed to get the lotus symbol. In Nagina, the BSP is again paying for abrupt Sanskritisation. She has fielded controversial bureaucrat RK Singh's wife Omwati. The front-runner here is a BSP veteran Manoj Paras, contesting on Samajwadi Party ticket.
Her efforts to checkmate her rivals by fielding forward caste candidates in wholesale on the face of it looks to have checkmated the gameplan of parties like the BJP and, to an extent, the Congress.<b> But she is facing the challenge at her own game by her bete noires Samajwadi Party, which has fielded several ex-BSP members on the cycle symbol.</b>
<b>The rise of Mayawati has brought about one perceptible change in the UP politics. The Dalits, who were kept away by the upper castes during elections, are certainly now coming out in large numbers to vote. </b>Their average presence on each of the seats is in the vicinity of 10 to 12 per cent. With caste as the sole agenda, the BSP is increasingly feeling the handicap to move into the category of a party able to form a Government on its own.
A hung House, says Exit poll
New Delhi: An exit poll held after the second phase of UP election on Friday predicted a hung Assembly with the BSP and ruling SP running neck and neck. The poll conducted by NDTV projected the BSP emerging as the single largest party with seats between 115-125, while Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav's party was likely to bag 110-120 seats in the 403-member Assembly. It projected the Bharatiya Janata Party to be following closely with 95-105 seats. The Congress would get 35-45 seats. Others would win 20-30 seats, it said. Meanwhile, 46 per cent voter turnout was reported on Friday.
<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->