The Hindu Business Line : UP verdict: Tired of hung Houses

Chennai May 12 While hailing the Bahujan Samaj Party Chief Ms Mayawati's victory in the Uttar Pradesh elections, which has ended 14 long years of coalition rule and politics of horse trading in the State, and proved all pollsters, reporters and political analysts wrong, her biggest achievement has not been highlighted enough. In an era when the country is getting polarised deeper into so many different segments with mandir at one end and Mandal at another, she has achieved the impossible feat of bringing various disparate sections together under one umbrella.

A party known for its Dalit base did the unthinkable in this election by adopting the smart strategy of asking for upper caste votes by fielding as many as 87 Brahmin candidates under its banner. This is akin to putting your money where your mouth is; instead of tall promises that it would do this or that for the upper castes, she made a powerful statement by giving so many tickets to Brahmins, assuring the upper caste voters that their own representatives would be there in the House and the Cabinet to represent their interests.

Of course one can argue, that this still amounts to playing the caste card, and it does. But then she is an astute politician, out there to collect the maximum number of seats, and not a social reformist waging a battle against the caste system. A section of Muslims has always been with her because for poorer and backward Muslims, any party that talks about getting justice for the socially and economically disadvantaged, is worth backing. But what came as a surprise was that instead of once again playing to the formula that the BJP has always benefited from — division of anti-BJP votes in different directions — a big chunk of UP Muslims who were obviously disenchanted with the Mulayam Singh-led Samajwadi Party have gone to the BSP.

What seems to have escaped the pollsters and journalists covering this election, is that the people of the State were tired of hung Assemblies resulting in instability and politics of defections and bargaining. The Supreme Court judgment that came in towards the fag end of Mr Mulayam Singh Yadav's regime disqualifying the BSP MLAs who had defected to SP twice to shore up the Mulayam Government, and the sabre rattling by the Congress(I) and threats of President's rule, might have also helped the undecided voters to vote for stability. Charges of corruption against Mr Mulayam Singh and his family, his counter-charges against both the CBI and the Election Commission, expectedly, went against him.

But while the SP was trounced and came down to 97 seats, an even greater trouncing was reserved for the BJP, which had created a hype about the resurgence of the Hindu vote. The party that had talked about the road to Delhi being via Lucknow at various fora was left with just 50 seats, recording its worst-ever performance in the State in recent times.

Even though the Congress(I) won only 22 seats, Congress leaders hopped from one TV channel to another, wearing a huge smile... and couldn't stop smiling. The reason is simple enough; for the Congress(I), UP is not a battleground at all. Its worst fear was of a coalition government in UP, in which the BJP was a major player. This, after Punjab and Uttarakhand, would have been devastating for the Congress(I).

With the BSP getting a simple majority, that fear is gone. To the Congress(I), power at the Centre is much more important and for the first time in recent Assembly polls, the voters have brought a halt to the BJP bandwagon, and that despite all arms of the Sangh Parivar working fervently for the BJP's success in UP, its karmabhoomi in more senses than one.

The mandate is decisive so there can be no excuse from the incoming government of having to please this coalition partner or the other.

The people have delivered their vote for a stable, development-oriented government, in the hope that it will move away from the hype on big ticket investments and ensure that the thousands of small enterprises that are dead or dying in the industrial cities of Kanpur, Meerut or Muradabad, will be revived first, before the administration turns its attention to big ventures. Instead of concentrating on such priorities, if Ms Mayawati turns her focus and energy on vindictive action against the previous regime, it will be a disappointment indeed.

Response may be sent to rasheeda@thehindu.co.in