04-23-2007, 02:17 AM
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>Brahmins may not accept Maya as yajman </b>
Pioneer.com
Sidharth Mishra | New Delhi
Fourth phase polling today
This summer, it's not just the wedding couples who are seeking out Brahmins. The purohits are being wooed aggressively by all political outfits desirous of putting a Government in place in Lucknow. <b>Why just blame Mayawati for making a U-turn on upper-caste bashing and flirting with the Brahmins</b>.
The face and beneficiary of the Mandalisation of Indian politics, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav has gone farther ahead. He has balanced the grant of Government holiday on Prophet Mohammed's birthday with announcing holiday on Maharishi Parsuram Jayanti. <b>Last week, the residents of UP were surprised to find banks and Government offices closed for celebrating Parsuram Jayanti</b>, something hitherto not of much religious significance for the practicing Hindus.
<b>The announcement of Parsuram Jayanti holiday by the Samajwadi Party Government just ahead of the fourth round of Uttar Pradesh Vidhan Sabha poll is pointedly directed at the large number of Brahmin voters who are present in the area.</b> Even BSP chief Mayawati's attempt at social engineering, to bring Dalits and Brahmins under her leadership, will be put to real test on Monday when polling for 57 UP seats takes place.
If the much-trumpeted Dalit-Brahmin alliance has to work, it will be here on the seats spread over the districts of Lakhimpur, Sitapur, Baharaich, Barabanki, Basti, Gonda, Shravasti, Balrampur and Siddharthnagar. Of these 57 seats, 14 are reserved for SCs. But more importantly, Brahmins have over 40,000 votes in 33 seats and another five seats could be added where their number is more than 25,000.
But then caste groups are not like pawns in a game of chess, which could be moved at the will of the players. This well explains how this Brahmin-dominated area sent 31 Samajwadi Party candidates from the 57 seats here to the Vidhan Sabha in the 2002 poll, whereas the BJP had 14, BSP 9, Congress 2 and JD(U) 1.
The special feature of the 2002 results from this area was distinct polarisation of the Hindu-Muslim votes on more than one-third of the seats won by the BJP. <b>This area lying north of Saryu river has been the cradle of the Ram Mandir movement. A large number of people died during the firing ordered by the Mulayam Singh Government on the Ram sewaks when they made a surge towards Ayodhya in 1990 which proved to be a catalyst in bringing down the VP Singh Government at the Centre in 1991</b>.
If a caste-analysis of those dead and injured in 1990 was to be carried out, the results would show that they were largely from the non-Yadav OBCs and upper castes, pre-dominantly Brahmins and Thakurs. The coming together of these three communities gave the BJP the surge in 1992 Vidhan Sabha election leading to the formation of the first BJP Government in the State with Kalyan Singh as Chief Minister.
This time around, the <b>BSP has fielded 13, BJP 12, SP 6 and Congress 8</b> candidates on the 43 general seats from the region. In an election where appeasement of minorities, as evident in the Muslim First policies enunciated by the Centre, has become a major issue, why should the Hindu-centric voter go with Mayawati? Last time, the Hindu-centric voters preferred Mulayam Singh over Mayawati as a completely disorganised BJP, with Kalyan Singh cutting heavily into their vote-bank, was not in a position to put its best foot forward.
<b>This time around, the Hindu-centric voters, especially the Thakurs, Brahmins and the non-Yadav OBCs have the option of voting for a resurgent BJP. Mayawati's attempt at wooing Brahmins would have reaped her rich harvest if the saffron party had remained a non-player as most of the pollsters had predicted at the beginning of the poll. </b>But she now has a tough, nearly insurmountable, task at hand.
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Pioneer.com
Sidharth Mishra | New Delhi
Fourth phase polling today
This summer, it's not just the wedding couples who are seeking out Brahmins. The purohits are being wooed aggressively by all political outfits desirous of putting a Government in place in Lucknow. <b>Why just blame Mayawati for making a U-turn on upper-caste bashing and flirting with the Brahmins</b>.
The face and beneficiary of the Mandalisation of Indian politics, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav has gone farther ahead. He has balanced the grant of Government holiday on Prophet Mohammed's birthday with announcing holiday on Maharishi Parsuram Jayanti. <b>Last week, the residents of UP were surprised to find banks and Government offices closed for celebrating Parsuram Jayanti</b>, something hitherto not of much religious significance for the practicing Hindus.
<b>The announcement of Parsuram Jayanti holiday by the Samajwadi Party Government just ahead of the fourth round of Uttar Pradesh Vidhan Sabha poll is pointedly directed at the large number of Brahmin voters who are present in the area.</b> Even BSP chief Mayawati's attempt at social engineering, to bring Dalits and Brahmins under her leadership, will be put to real test on Monday when polling for 57 UP seats takes place.
If the much-trumpeted Dalit-Brahmin alliance has to work, it will be here on the seats spread over the districts of Lakhimpur, Sitapur, Baharaich, Barabanki, Basti, Gonda, Shravasti, Balrampur and Siddharthnagar. Of these 57 seats, 14 are reserved for SCs. But more importantly, Brahmins have over 40,000 votes in 33 seats and another five seats could be added where their number is more than 25,000.
But then caste groups are not like pawns in a game of chess, which could be moved at the will of the players. This well explains how this Brahmin-dominated area sent 31 Samajwadi Party candidates from the 57 seats here to the Vidhan Sabha in the 2002 poll, whereas the BJP had 14, BSP 9, Congress 2 and JD(U) 1.
The special feature of the 2002 results from this area was distinct polarisation of the Hindu-Muslim votes on more than one-third of the seats won by the BJP. <b>This area lying north of Saryu river has been the cradle of the Ram Mandir movement. A large number of people died during the firing ordered by the Mulayam Singh Government on the Ram sewaks when they made a surge towards Ayodhya in 1990 which proved to be a catalyst in bringing down the VP Singh Government at the Centre in 1991</b>.
If a caste-analysis of those dead and injured in 1990 was to be carried out, the results would show that they were largely from the non-Yadav OBCs and upper castes, pre-dominantly Brahmins and Thakurs. The coming together of these three communities gave the BJP the surge in 1992 Vidhan Sabha election leading to the formation of the first BJP Government in the State with Kalyan Singh as Chief Minister.
This time around, the <b>BSP has fielded 13, BJP 12, SP 6 and Congress 8</b> candidates on the 43 general seats from the region. In an election where appeasement of minorities, as evident in the Muslim First policies enunciated by the Centre, has become a major issue, why should the Hindu-centric voter go with Mayawati? Last time, the Hindu-centric voters preferred Mulayam Singh over Mayawati as a completely disorganised BJP, with Kalyan Singh cutting heavily into their vote-bank, was not in a position to put its best foot forward.
<b>This time around, the Hindu-centric voters, especially the Thakurs, Brahmins and the non-Yadav OBCs have the option of voting for a resurgent BJP. Mayawati's attempt at wooing Brahmins would have reaped her rich harvest if the saffron party had remained a non-player as most of the pollsters had predicted at the beginning of the poll. </b>But she now has a tough, nearly insurmountable, task at hand.
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