With the largest number of Assembly and Parliament seats, Uttar
Pradesh has always foretold the direction of Indian politics. Current assembly
elections too are not an exception.
However, people of Uttar Pradesh dint participate much in
polling until these 2012 Assembly elections. It was a huge increase at 59.48 %. Though It was bit lesser than the other four states such as
Manipur (79.8), Uttarakhand (67.22), Punjab
(78.57) and Goa (81.74). As per election commission analysis UP observed
highest number of increase in voters since last assembly elections, it was
45.81 % from the last assembly elections.
Credit goes to the election commission for getting maximum population
of citizens into voter list. The campaign through several media helps in
communicating election commission message across the masses.
Some political parties like BJP also run campaign among youths
for voter awareness. Ramlakhanpal Sharma, young MLA of BJP, Varun Gandhi, young
MP of BJP and Anurag Thakur, MP and President of Youth BJP took active
campaigns for voter awareness in youths. Harshwardhan of Congress also promoted
similar awareness in western UP.
Owing to its importance in national politics, the assembly
elections of UP is also being dubbed as ‘semi-final’ for general elections
2014. Though, the patter and the issues are different from these two elections,
the stake for national parties are highest.
Despite situated in fertile plains of Ganga and Yamuna, UP
remain one of the poorest state of India. This poverty and backwardness is less
due to population burden, more due to the massive misuse of development funds.
The best example was the huge investment in parks and statues by outgoing Mayawati’s
government. Probably she is the first
one to install her own huge statues in a democracy like India.
Everything was visible and clear to mass – the corruption regime
at centre and at state were adding much in their lives. Anti-corruption drives
by Anna Hazare and his followers in urban areas and by Baba Ramdev in rural
area – created much of awareness among the people. The huge turnouts owe much
to these two prominent personalities; even if political parties refuse to
admit.
Being in ground during polls helped me getting firsthand
experience about the people’s polling mood. Much before to the elections, in November
2011, Kamaljit Singh a political activist from Saharanpur (Western UP) said
about the political neutrality of a particular group who remained shy from
voting all the time. That time we expected them to come and vote due to agitated
state of national mood. From Deoria Md. Babudin expected similar trends in
ongoing elections.
While visiting UP during elections, I found those observations were
right. Now when the voters have come and voted in huge number, everyone wants
to take credit. But have the people of UP forgotten the crimes in street during
the rule of SP or shoe fetish and statues love of Mayawati ? If not in imminently, but Uttar Pradesh is going to decide India's future very soon.
While exit polls are there to keep politicians positive, people
of Uttar Pradesh might have much to reply the corrupt leaders. If it is proved
on 6th March, this is going to be a paradigm shift for Indian
politics.
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