Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav drove into 5, Kalidas Marg – the official residence of Chief Minister – at around 10.15 amand straight away walked into the living room where a few party leaders were glued to the television watching election trends. “This Bihar election result is a big learning curve for all of us,” he said.
Chief Minister hits the bull’s eye with his plain speak. Chief Minister might have spoken in a singular number and about Samajwadi Party only – but all the big political players in Uttar Pradesh can take lesson from the Bihar results.
One thing is clear that people are now giving decisive mandate. This happened in Rajasthan, in Haryana in Delhi and now in Bihar. This is also wrong to say that poll results have impact on neighbouring states. If that is so the election results of Haryana should have impacted Delhi – but it never happened that way.
Imagining Bihar results will have an impact in Uttar Pradesh, where elections will be held after 15 months, is just far fetched. But all the parties can take lessons from this result and position themselves accordingly.
Samajwadi Party: When Mulayam Singh Yadav walked out of the Great Alliance political pundits believed that he has walked straight into the game plan of BJP. The Samajwadi Party -led alliance failed to open its account. The SP had contested 85 seats and polled just 1 per cent votes. The party was hoping to win at least 5 seats.
The result came as a shocker – had Mulayam not walked out of the alliance he would have now been sharing the victory dias with GA leaders.
The party could still take solace that GA won election because of the clean image of Nitish Kumar. Akhilesh Yadav too has a clean image despite some of his ministers are facing corruption charges.
Secondly, the Nitish fought this election on development plank. Akhilesh Yadav too, of late, has speeded up implementation of development schemes. He has over a year’s time before UP will go to polls and half of the battle will be won if by that time of he is able to improve power scenario and conditions of roads.
Another silver lining for the party is practically no impact of MIM in Seemanhal area where the party contested six seats. Asaduddin Owaisi has shown his inclination to contest elections in UP. If Akhilesh can play his cards well he can keep Muslims votes intact.
Bharatiya Janata Party: When the counting began and trends showed initial gain for BJP, the party in UP went overdrive. The party state president Dr laxmi Kant Bajpai was seen telling senior party leaders that Bihar results would open flood gates for BJP in UP. But by noon the trend took a u-turn and the party office wore deserted look.
If BJP wants to win UP – the Bihar results has come as a bane in disguise. The results will show importance of workers in winning elections. If BJP had won Bihar elections the leaders in UP would have become more arrogant as was the case post-lok Sabha elections. The workers were ignored. The situation reached such a low that senior leaders reminded UP leaders to respect workers.
Another lesson Bihar has sent loud and clear to UP BJP leaders is that polarization and divisive politics would not work. People are fed up with cow, mandir and masjid issues and want bijli, sadak, paani. Thus, party has to re-align its strategy and go back to the drawing board.
Bahujan Samaj Party: Despite getting just 2 per cent vote Mayawati can manage smile now. Bihar had never presented positive socio-political scenario for BSP. The party thrives on dalit votes particularly that of Chamar caste and Muslims. Bihar has Paswans in majority and Muslims there are well aligned with GA.
This result has shown decimation of BJP. After lok Sabha elections where BSP has drawn a blank the result can give party confidence that it can stop Modi’s juggernaut. The result has dented BJP pride and has given Mayawati a space to play with. If she involves all caste and start touring length and breadth of the state in no time BSP will emerge as a political force to reckon with.
Congress: It is a remarkable come back for Congress in Bihar. It won 27 out of 40 seats Congress won. This was possible only because of the alliance it entered into. The party which was pushed into oblivion has piggy rode on GA to reach the victory podium.
Congress will have to replicate this formula in Uttar Pradesh. It has to look for strong alliance which can give the party great dividends. The RJD and JD (U) are almost non-existent in UP. It has to look for UP-centric alliance that can help the party survive in this politically sensitive state.