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The RSS-created hype about a saffron resurgence in UP fooled no one except opinion pollsters and the BJP. Convinced by the parivar’s propaganda machine that the party would come a close second to the Bahujan Samaj Party in a hung assembly (a fallacy perpetuated at regular intervals by exit polls), the BJP leadership had made elaborate preparations to cobble together a government in UP, even if it meant supping with the SP.

Chief Minister designate Mukhtar Naqvi was dispatched to Lucknow the day before the results were declared to set in motion the process of roping in SP support. In Delhi, a Parliamentary board was scheduled to endorse the plan, which was based on the naïve calculation that the SP would readily support a Muslim CM, whatever his political colour.

The results came like a bomb explosion. Ashen-faced BJP leaders gathered in LK Advani’s Parliament House office, looking for tea and sympathy. A wake would have been more cheerful than the discussion to decide the party line for television cameras. Sheer bravado made them go through the motions of a Parliamentary board meeting in the evening. There was nothing to discuss but they met anyway. A cup of tea and a samosa later, they dispersed. The meeting lasted less than 30 minutes.

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While the BJP behaved as if their world had disintegrated, the Congress sought solace in crumbs. Party leaders have been reeling out statistics as comfort food. They won 22 seats, came second in 20 and third in 70. That’s much better than the 2002 performance, when 354 Congress candidates came last and lost their deposits. The icing on the cake: the highest number of votes in the entire election went to a Congressman, Ajay Kapoor, for the Govind Nagar seat. He bagged 1,10,000 votes! The difference between the Congress and BJP is simply a matter of expectations. The former thinks small, the latter is hoist by its own petard.

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Sonia Gandhi and Manmohan Singh were among the first political leaders to congratulate Mayawati on her stunning performance. Not many know that Mayawati and Gandhi enjoy a good rapport and are in regular touch. Unlike the very public ‘rakhi’ relationship she once shared with BJP leaders Kalraj Mishra and Lalji Tandon, Mayawati has kept her Gandhi connection under wraps. Also, Mayawati’s chief Brahmin strategist, Satish Mishra, maintains a link with Ahmed Patel. This is an equation that’s likely to prove very useful in the coming months.

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TAILPIECE

A fighter by nature, Mulayam Singh Yadav will live to see another day. But the friends he acquired through Amar Singh over the years are not made of such stern stuff. His business pals have been trying to build bridges to Mayawati and the Congress for the past six months. Some have succeeded in establishing contact, like sugar baron Kushagara Bajaj and Subroto Roy. Others, like Flex Industries chief Ashok Chaturvedi, haven’t made any headway. He’s been the first to feel the effect of the SP’s defeat when his offices were raided by IT sleuths the night before counting day. Whispers in Delhi say that the Mulayam’s favours to the Bachchans will come under the scanner next. These include tax concessions to their movies, Big B’s appointment as UP Brand Ambassador and his controversial ad series on UP. As they say, all’s fair in love and politics, even vendetta.

Email: a_jerath@dnaindia.net