The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party started the year in Uttar Pradesh with a bang by garnering, in the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and other dignitaries, investments exceeding its annual state budget.
But as the year went by, the aura of the Yogi Adityanath government faded. First with the loss in bypolls and later defeats in the assembly elections in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh shattered the party.
On the political front, there was an undeclared unity among the opposition parties in the by-elections to three Lok Sabha and one assembly constituency in UP. The opposition wrested the Gorakhpur, Phulpur and Kairana Lok Sabha seats from the BJP. It also snatched the Noorpur assembly seat which fell vacant following the death of sitting BJP member Lokendra Singh.
The Gorakhpur Lok Sabha seat was held by Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, the Phulpur seat by his deputy Keshav Prasad Maurya while the Kairana seat fell vacant following the death of BJP MP Hukum Singh. The Gorakhpur and Phulpur seats were wrested by Samajwadi Party and the Kairana seat by Rashtriya Lok Dal. The SP annexed the Noorpur assembly seat also.
The Pioneer has tried to weave important events that occurred in 2018.
New records
Amid protests by the opposition, the UP government changed the name of Allahabad to Prayagraj and of Faizabad district to Ayodhya. Holding of elaborate Deepawali festivities at Ayodhya and the visit of South Korean First Lady Kim Jung-Sook on the occasion was a grand event of the state. Besides, a Guinness world record was created by lighting over three lakh earthen lamps on the ghats of the Saryu river.
The government also announced that a 151-metre statue of Lord Ram would be erected on the banks of river Saryu in Ayodhya. A statue of late Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee would come up at the Lok Bhawan in Lucknow.
New forces
UP witnessed emergence of new political forces in the state. Shivpal Singh Yadav, the estranged uncle of Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav, floated a new political outfit, Pragatisheel Samajwadi Party (Lohia), with the aim to contest all the Lok Sabha seats from UP and challenge the SP.
Controversial five-term Independent MLA and former UP Minister Raghuraj Pratap Singh aka Raja Bhaiya also formed a new political party, the Jansatta Dal, and held its first public rally on November 30 this year.
Throughout the year, the ruling BJP had to face bickering within the party as well as squabbles with its alliance partners. BJP MP Savitribai Phule, the Dalit Lok Sabha member from Bahraich, resigned from the primary membership of the party in the first week of December.
Two alliance partners of the BJP — Suheldeo Bhartiya Samaj Party (SBSP) led by state Cabinet minister Om Prakash Rajbhar and Apna Dal (Sonelal) of Union Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare Anupriya Patel — also created problems for the BJP during the entire year.
Rajbhar went public with his criticism of the Yogi government on a day-to-day basis and questioned its stand on the reservations for Most Backward Classes and on other issues raised by the opposition, including law and order. Apna Dal, also, jumped on the bandwagon in the last month of the year and announced to boycott all programmes of the state government.
Good signs for opposition
The year augured well for the opposition.
Samajwadi Party and Bahujan Samaj Party opened talks for an alliance for the Lok Sabha polls as Indian National Congress and other parties also evinced keenness to join the anti-BJP platform. Poll results in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh, also, provided encouragement to the opposition in the state, while on the other hand, BJP spruced up its efforts to rejuvenate its organisation at the booth level for the coming Lok Sabha polls.
The year commenced on a good note for the UP government. Totally focusing on the development front, the BJP government during its two-day Investors’ Summit on February 21 and 22 garnered investments to the tune of around Rs 4.68 lakh crore when the state annual budget is just above Rs 4.28 lakh crore. Even the first groundbreaking for Rs 60,000 crore projects was performed on July 29 by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The Prime Minister also launched the UP government’s ambitious 340-km Poorvanchal Expressway project at Azamgarh on July 14. The over Rs 23,000 crore project will connect Lucknow with Ghazipur.
During the year, the government also commenced the process to acquire land for the proposed defence corridor in Bundelkhand and other regions. A Detailed Project Report for Bundelkhand Expressway, too, is under process.
Aiming high
In a boost to the aviation sector, the Centre accorded its consent to the Jewar International Airport at Gautam Buddha Nagar district, for which the government has started acquiring the land. Several new airports, including at Prayagraj and Gorakhpur, were inaugurated during the year. A new airport in Ayodhya was also announced.
The government also launched the Kashi Vishwanath Corridor project to broaden the approach to the Kashi Vishwanath temple in Varanasi though there were hiccups with some people approaching the Allahabad High Court.
The Prime Minister’s constituency came in for special attention during the year with Narendra Modi himself visiting Varanasi four times. The PM also inaugurated a waterway between Haldia and Varanasi and launched cruise facilities for pilgrims going to Kumbh at Prayagraj.
The Taj City of Agra witnessed protests, after Archaeological Survey of India increased the entry fee for the mausoleum from December.
