UP BYELECTION VICTORY IS AN OPPORTUNE TIME FOR ANTI BJP NATIONAL UNITY

The miserable defeat of the Bhartiya Janata Party in two parliamentary bypolls in Gorakhpur and Phulpur including the seats of Jehanabad and Araria in Bihar by Bahujan Samajwadi backed SP and RJD led by Lalu Prasad Yadav who is currently in Jail is a stunning blow and tragic setback for the party ruling in the centre and 21 states of the country. One should also not forget that it has also lost badly in two parliamentary seats in Rajasthan by polls similarly just two months ago in a state ruled by its own party government. Since 2014, after the BJP assumed power at the centre with a historic win, the ruling party has lost in 10 parliamentary seats in various bypolls and is running short of individual majority in Lok Sabha by two seats though it has enough support of its NDA allies. Lot has already been scripted about these defeats in UP’s two BJP strongholds earlier represented by the incumbent CM Adityanath Yogi and deputy CM Keshav Maurya.

These defeats are a stunning blow for the central and state BJP, including prime minister Modi because in 2014 the BJP saffronised the largest state of the country viz UP and secured 73 seats out of 80 with two seats of Apna Dal. Similarly a year ago its saffron juggernaut of Hinduism under prime minister Narendra Modi’s charismatic leadership continued and the party secured 325 seats catapulting the saffron robed seer to the top slot i. e. the post of chief minister of UP. And just after 365 days the most popular hindu leader, a sear turned CM who was seeking peoples support and sympathy on the issue eradicating criminalism and criminals from Uttar Pradesh could not bring his candidate victorious from his own traditional strong hold Gorakhpur from where he himself was the member of parliament for 25 long years earlier represented by his religious and political mentor late Mahant Avaithyanath. Similarly, the former UP BJP chief and a dalit himself could’nt claim BJP’s victory of his own parliamentary constituency.

It’s a dangerous and worrisome signal for the state as well as the central BJP as the votes of the dalits, Yadavs, minorities, backwards and the people of the lowest ebb of the society in both the constituencies has this time consolidated enmass in favour of the BSP backed SP and the hard core RSS or hindu vote did’nt turned for voting. This factor unambiguously speaks of the fact that the dalit, minority and OBC vote bank which comprises of a sizeable chunk in UP and had gone in favour of BJP during the last parliamentary and assembly elections under the influence of hindu saffronization minus minority vote, has this time deflected itself from BJP enmass.

This sends a negative signal and message for the BJP. Occuring anti incumbency in just a year’s time in UP, Rajasthan and Bihar where the BJP lost in all the bypolls of parliament is definitely a warning signal for BJP high command giving an unambiguous indication of diminishing Modi and Yogi Aditya Nath charisma who had till now been on a expeditious winning spree right from Assam to Tripura and North East after 2014.

While the BJP’s bypoll defeat seems to be the result of fastly eroding dalit, backward, down trodden and minority base of BJP in UP, Rajasthan and Bihar, political analysts also give the entire credit for this show to BSP in UP, Congress in Rajasthan and RJD in Bihar but what comes out of this development is the fact that anti BJP unity if worked ferociously as was the case in UP , the experiment can compel the ruling BJP to bite the dust in 2019.

The by election results have made things amply clear and transparent that the non BJP opposition unity at the national level to consolidate the minority, OBC, backward, dalit and other lower caste vote bank, including the votes of the disenchanted commoners, unemployeed youths, farmers, lower middle class and electorates of the suburban areas is the need of the hour.

2019 is not far and time is very short too. A non BJP Mahagath- bandhan at the national level under one umbrella and unanimous leader is the only and sole credible alternative to the biased and rhetorical BJP which has so far failed on several important fronts like price rise, unemployment,agrarian sector, investment, growth rate and industrial and economic self reliance. Now is the right time to hit the hot iron. If not now never will it be, say news analysts.
SUNIL NEGI