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#DNAInUP: In Bundelkhand, BSP and BJP vie for supremacy

The party's failure to address Bundelkhand statehood during the ten years it was in power at the Centre is another sticking point

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In 2012, all of Uttar Pradesh’s four main parties could claim to have done fairly well in the sprawling Bundelkhand region with the BSP heading the tally with seven seats, the BJP at the bottom with three seats and the SP and the Congress in the middle. Five years later, as the state readies for another election, the poll-scape is not much different with no single party in the position to claim a decisive edge.

Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi was first off the block promising a farm loan waiver scheme for the region that spans both Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh, where it comprises seven districts that send 19 legislators to the state assembly and four MPs to the Lok Sabha. Considering that years of successive droughts had virtually broken the backs of farmers in Bundelkhand, the loan waiver scheme or “karza maaf” was an attractive slogan. However, with the party’s weak grassroots presence, the Congress has failed to adequately take this message to the people. The party's failure to address Bundelkhand statehood during the ten years it was in power at the Centre is another sticking point.

The importance given to poll strategist Prashant Kishor, who is considered one of the architects of Nitish Kumar’s win in Bihar and is now advising the Congress, has also rubbed many Congress leaders the wrong way. “Each ticket seeker was told to bring 25 Congress workers to Rahulji’s Lucknow rally by PK’s team if we are to get the party ticket to contest. When did this become the criteria to assess a candidate’s winnability?” said a miffed Congress leader in Jhansi. He also attributed Kishor’s meetings with other parties to probe the possibility of alliances as a giveaway of his loss of confidence.

In terms of visibility, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) seems to have marched ahead of its rivals and is also struggling from an embarrassment of riches with several ticket seekers in every constituency. The BJP’s strong showing in 2014 when it swept all four Lok Sabha seats in Bundelkhand has swelled the line of ticket seekers, most of whom are from the upper castes. The party had flagged off one of the legs of the four-pronged Parivartan Yatra from Jhansi on November 5. Along the route of the campaign rally for change and across Jhansi, Jalaun, Hamirpur and Mahoba districts, banners and hoardings of BJP ticket seekers competed for attention on road sides and busy intersections.

Mukesh Mishra, a BJP office-bearer in Jhansi district, claimed the electoral mood was in favour of the party because the Uttar Pradesh electorate had tried and tested both the Samajwadi Party (SP) and the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP). He rejected the contention that the Muslim vote gravitating towards the BSP would make it an unbeatable force. “The Samajwadi Party has done considerable work for Muslims and they will not desert it so quickly,” said Mishra. He said the failure to implement the Bundelkhand package – a Rs.7,266 crore package announced in 2009 with Rs.3,506 crore for Uttar Pradesh and Rs.3,760 crore for Madhya Pradesh -- would haunt both the SP and the BSP in the coming elections.

Statehood for the region is another potent issue. Though the BJP is yet to explicitly state its support for it, Jhansi MP and union minister Uma Bharti demanded statehood in presence of BJP president Amit Shah at the start of the Parivartan Yatra. However, a BSP leader in Jhansi, Brijendra Kushwaha, whose uncle Sitaram Kushwaha is expected to get the party ticket, said the large number of ticket-seekers will boomerang on the BJP because those disappointed may work against the official candidate. Mayawati’s November 2011 proposal to divide UP in four parts with statehood for Bundelkhand will go in the BSP’s favour, he added.

In Jhansi and much of Bundelkhand, the BSP is counting on the coming together of Dalit, Muslim and non-Yadav OBC votes in its favour. “The Jatav and non-Jatav divide in the BSP has been effaced by the Samajwadi Party’s stance on reservation for scheduled castes in promotions,” said Sanjay Gautam, a local journalist.

In Jhansi, which has a significant number of Kushwaha votes, BSP chief Mayawati is seeking to win back Kushwaha votes that she lost in the aftermath of former aide Babu Singh Kushwaha’s expulsion. The BJP has also been reaching out to Kushwaha voters and may offer Bihar leader and union minister Upendra Kushwaha’s RLSP at least a couple of seats in Bundelkhand.

The ruling SP, which has five legislators from Bundelkhand and has been facing a critical leadership crisis with Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav and his father Mulayam Singh Yadav ranged against each other, is clearly on a weak wicket. While even Dalit activists grudgingly admit that roads and power supply have improved, all parties are unanimous in their criticism that the SP government has done little to alleviate the drought conditions. The party’s opposition to Bundelkhand statehood will also go against it.

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