Congress re-born in UP after two decades

Braving odds and belying all predictions, Congress made a spectacular comeback in the politically crucial state of Uttar Pradesh after almost two decades winning as many as 21 of the 80 seats, and in the process dashing BSP supremo Mayawati’s prime ministerial ambitions and Samajwadi Party’s hope to become a kingmaker.
A jubilant UP Congress president Reeta Bahuguna Joshi, who lost from Lucknow, attributed the party’s ‘fantastic’ performance to the ‘pro-people’ measures taken by the UPA government and ‘hard work’ by Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi.
The Congress, which had won only nine seats in the 2004 Lok Sabha polls with a vote share of a meagre 12.7 per cent, wrested a number of seats from the SP, BSP and BJP, though it also lost some of its own seats.
The party, which was confined mainly to some specific pockets, sprang major surprises by making handsome gains across the state, though it got a majority of seats from the Eastern and Central parts of the state.
The party’s victory at Faizabad, the land of Lord Rama, comes after a gap of 25 years. Nirmal Khatri, who won this time, had last won from here in 1984. The win in the den of ‘Hindutva’ is significant as it reflected that the Ram temple was not an ‘electoral issue’.
Although the final voting percentage was yet to be declared, according to an estimate, the party’s vote share has registered an increase of around 7 to 8 per cent.
Congress headquarters in the state capital witnessed celebrations after a long time. The party had secured a meagre 6.02 per cent votes in 1998 which rose to 13 per cent and ten seats in 1999. Even in the 2007 Assembly polls, the party had fared badly winning only 22 seats with a vote share of around nine per cent.
The party’s victory in some Muslim-dominated seats like Bareilly, Kheri, Baharaich, Farrukhabad, Moradabad and Shravasti indicated that it had received good support from the Muslims.
Besides, the win in the reserved constituency of Barabanki  showed that it had also been able to make a dent into Mayawati's Dalit vote bank.
That the upper castes, especially the Brahmins, also rooted for the party this time was reflected in its victory in Unnao, a predominantly Brahmin seat and the BSP nominee was also a Brahmin.
“The decision of the Congress to go it alone in the polls seems to have paid rich dividends to the party”, opined political analyst Prof Ramesh Dixit, talking to Deccan Herald.
“Mayawati’s bid to grab power at the centre by fielding criminals has boomeranged”, he said adding that her ‘so called social engineering’ also failed this time.
Payback time
Political pundits also said that the UPA government’s much acclaimed loan waiver scheme and the NREGS proved to be a big hit with the electorate cutting across caste and religious lines.
Besides Rahul’s aggressive campaigning and his visits to the Dalit households, which earned wrath of Mayawati, succeeded in sending a message that the party cared for them, the analysts point out.
Rahul had also been involved in the selection of candidates. All through his campaigning, the young Congress leader harped on development and ultimately succeeded in making it an election issue.
An analysis of the results also show that the Congress has been able to regain, to a large extent, its Brahmin and Muslim vote bank and has also been able to make inroads into the Dalit votes.
According to political observers, former BJP leader Kalyan Singh’s proximity with the Samajwadi Party pushed a large section of the Muslims to the Congress’ fold.
The victory came as a surprise for the party workers and leaders in the state though they claimed that they were expecting such a result. “There apparently was an undercurrent”, claimed senior party leader Virendra Madan.