Regional satraps in the south did well in the polls, but those in the north failed to rise to the occasion.
All rise! Nitish, Naveen, Captain & Chiru are here
Nitish Kumar
The question whether Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar will forge close ties with the Congress-led UPA at the Centre must be haunting both Ram Vilas Paswan and Lalu Prasad. Even if Nitish keeps a distance from the UPA, he is a gainer.
The low-profile political strategist that Nitish is, he has not only been able to checkmate all political rivals in Bihar, but through his performance in the Lok Sabha election, he has also catapulted himself to the centre stage of the country’s polity. Even if he does not join hands with the UPA at the Centre, it would be difficult for the Congress and its allies to ignore him. In fact, a weakened Paswan and Lalu would prove to be his strength in dealing with the Centre.
Naveen Patnaik
After sweeping both the assembly and Lok Sabha polls, the BJD has emerged as a strong regional outfit. “We’ll support a government that fulfils the just demands of the state,” BJD supremo Naveen Patnaik said. The BJD was formed in December 1997. After remaining in alliance with the BJP for 11 years, it parted ways following seat-sharing problems after the Kandhamal riots.
During its 11 years in power, emphasis was given to strengthening the party, by providing a clean government. The party got valuable advise from former bureaucrat Pyari Mohan Mohapatra. The BJD sacked more than 13 ministers for corruption. It had earlier sacked leaders like Bijaya Mahapatra, Dilip Ray and Nalini Mohanty.
Vijayakanth
Captain” Vijayakanth of the Desiya Murpokku Dravida Kazhagam’s (DMDK) ended up as an also-ran; none of his 40 candidates won. He was, however, a big spoiler, making many candidates bite the dust, including MDMK’s Vaiko. Though expected to ruin both DMK and the AIADMK’s chances, his party did the most damage to Jayalalithaa’s alliance. In Virudhunagar, DMDK’s K Pandiarajan polled over 1,20,000 votes. As a result, Vaiko lost by 15,764 votes to the Congress.
Vijayakanth’s gameplan was to increase his vote share from 8% in the 2006 assembly polls to a double-digit figure. His party’s high vote percentage will encourage him to sustain his dream of becoming Tamil Nadu CM.
Congress cuts Mulayam, Maya, Lalu, Paswan short
Mulayam Singh
The biggest damage the SP suffered this election is the split in its Muslim vote bank. This crucial vote deserted the SP to favour the Congress wherever the latter had put up strong candidates. This happened due to two major reasons — Mulayam’s friendship with “Ayodhya villain” Kalyan Singh, and the banner of revolt raised by the party’s ‘Muslim face’ Azam Khan in Rampur. Political watchers would, however, agree the SP has not done badly.
After all, it won Rampur which has the highest concentration of Muslims in UP. In 2004, when the SP won 35 seats, Mulayam was ruling and a Congress revival was unheard of. The Congress’ upsurge this time has hurt both the SP and the BSP.
Mayawati
Sixty-plus”. That was the figure touted by every BSP leader, almost as if it were the official figure, perhaps given out by Mayawati herself. But at the end of the day, the party has been limited to about a third of that. The party’s slogan “UP to hamaari hai, ab Dilli ki baari hai”, repeated endlessly by the Dalit leader at numerous election rallies, now rings hollow.
The Dalit ki beti’s ambitions of becoming PM have frittered away. Come to think of it, the BSP is running a majority government, it has a strong cadre base, a well-oiled, disciplined organisation and a big crowd-puller in Mayawati — all the makings of a winning political formation. Then what went wrong? That’s a question only Mayawati can answer.
Lalu Prasad
The second pillar of the newly-formed Fourth Front is lucky to have made it to the Lok Sabha despite losing one of the two seats he contested. But the former railway minister’s clout has certainly diminished both in Bihar and at the Centre. The road ahead for him is one full of thorns.
If he would have to face a rejuvenated Nitish Kumar and his Janata Dal (U) in Patna on the road to the Rashtriya Janata Dal’s recovery, a strengthened Congress would no more rely on him for the survival of the UPA government. Lalu’s dilemma was best reflected by his admission that he had committed a mistake by not making a common cause with the Congress in Bihar.
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