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Independents take lead in UP civic polls

With independents taking the lead in the urban local body elections in Uttar Pradesh, all parties are out to woo them. No party has secured a majority though the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party has remained ahead of its rivals.

State Election Commissioner Yashpal Singh said that more than 40 per cent positions for municipal boards and town area committees had gone to independents. Nearly 30 per cent municipal board chairmen are also independents, while two of the 11 city mayors are independents.

Elections on November 20 and 23 were held for the positions of 828 municipal corporators, 192 municipal board chairmen, 4909 municipal board members, 161 town area committee chairmen and 4785 town area committee members, spread across 71 districts.

Fiftynine of 192 municipal board chiefs in the state are independents, as against 45 of BJP, 37 of the Samajwadi Party, 23 Bahujan Samaj Party and 19 Congress.

Political analysts feel that the victory of many independents is a reflection of the people's anger against political parties. "Evidently, the voter regarded every politician, irrespective of party, as apathetic to his needs and problems," observed P C Tandon, a retired journalist.

"Apparently, people are thoroughly disgusted with politicians," he pointed out. Citing the election of a eunuch as mayor of Gorakhpur, a major city in eastern UP, as a manifestation of the people's anger against the political system, he felt, "It is time politicians realised that and mended their ways."

The BJP tally of eight mayors in the 1995 election has fallen to six. But with the SP able to retain just one and BSP failing to go beyond its previous one, even that was quite a bit of a consolation for the ruling party. For the Congress it was a major credit to have bagged the all-important mayor's post in Kanpur.

It was enough reason for Raj Nath Singh supporters to argue that but for him the party would not have more than four of the 11 mayoral positions.

Said a Singh supporter, "But for Singh, the BJP would have failed to retain its earlier tally."

The results boosted the chief minister's morale, as he boasted, "The election results have proved that the BJP remains the number one party in Uttar Pradesh. We have remained far ahead of rivals in most cities."

From available results and trends, it is clear that the BJP and SP have registered a fall in tallies. Obviously, some of their votes have been snatched by the BSP and Congress.

While it was no surprise to find the BSP's graph rising, the sudden improvement by the Congress was unexpected. Political observers attribute the fall in the BJP's tally to general disillusionment with the ruling party, whose leaders belied the hopes and expectations of the masses.

The Congress success, even though it trailed at number four, was seen as a feather in the cap of new Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee chief S P Jaiswal's cap. What consolidated his position was the party winning the mayor's post in Kanpur, his hometown and political base. What was incredible was that this could be achieved even though the Congress was plagued by infighting.

The SP felt that it was the changing mood of Muslims that led to a change in fortunes as it had done exceedingly well in town area committees in 1995. "I am sure a sizeable section of the Muslim vote has gone in favour of the Congress this time," said Fasih Ahmed, a retired army colonel.

Even as it was bound to have been rather upsetting for the BJP to have lost nagarpalika parishad chairmen seats in Ayodhya and Faizabad, neither the SP nor Congress could have any cause to revel. The SP lost to the BJP in Mulayam Singh Yadav's homeground, Bhartana in Etawah district, while the Congress suffered a devastating blow in its traditional bastion Rae Bareilly.

For the Samajwadi Party, the defeat of its mayoral nominee in Agra has sent a message that the party's Lok Sabha representative cinestar Raj Babbar has ceased to be a vote-catcher in his constituency.

Political analysts feel that the changing trend could be repeated in the state assembly elections in March 2002.

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