The two regional parties, the ruling Samajwadi Party (SP) and its rival the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), have pulled up their garters for the 2014 lok Sabha elections. The battle will give their final TRP ratings in Uttar Pradesh. Realising that it is high time that they put their respective houses in order, the two national parties, the Congress and BJP, have suddenly woken up from their slumber only to find that they are far behind the regional players as far as poll preparations go.
The truth is staring both the national parties whose popularity graph has steadily gone down in the last few years in the Hindi heartland. This has given rise to caste-based electoral politics and seen the SP and the BSP come to power in the State alternatively. This gave little opportunity to the national parties which were virtually reduced to mute spectators.
Recently, both the Congress and the BJP came on the centrestage as they made shrewd moves. Close on the heels of Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi’s elevation as chief of the party’s election campaign, the saffron party acted quickly and made Amit Shah, a Modi confidante, the election incharge of UP. The rumblings in the saffron camp suddenly came to a standstill as all warring factions within the party called it quits. They waited for the next development and for Modi to give them an audience so all joined hands to accord him a grand welcome.
Quick on the uptake of BJP’s plans, the Congress fielded its winning commander also a Gujarati, Madhusudan Mistry, to counter Shah. But State Congress leaders are yet to reconcile to this as both the Gujaratis will take stands in the boxing ring for secular and communal bouts in the lok Sabha elections.
The question doing the rounds in political circles is whether Shah will be able to elevate BJP’s prospectsIJ The Congress, too, is wondering whether Mistry will be able to repeat his Karanataka victory in the State.
Of course, the challenges before both men who are from outside the State, will be to prove their mettle. Senior members from both the parties remain sceptical of the success of the Gujarati leaders. They are tightlipped and prefer to watch the performance of the two. One thing is clear though — that UPites are in for an interesting match.
Time to move on
If you are closely following political developments in UP, you will know that bureaucrats and police officers in the State happen to be the most frequently tossed around lot as every party that comes to power draws up its own policies and programmes after assuming charge. Each time, the transfer season for officers is fixed after which only important transfers are made according to the needs of the administration.
As is customary, even the Akhilesh Yadav Government drew a line when it came to transferring babus on administrative grounds. Everybody was in agreement with the move. But shortly afterwards, it was found that senior officers continued to be moved — sometimes in small batches and, at times, in large numbers. Of course, the reason given was to tone up the State’s functioning.
Recently, when a journalist visited a bureaucrat’s office, the officer told the journalist to ask whatever questions he wanted to as the officer was not sure whether he would remain on the same post the next day. Believe it or not, he was transferred the very next day, much to the surprise of the journalist.
However, this is not the first officer to be transferred at such a short notice. There are many who barely stay on one post for a month. By the time these officers settle down and tackle the problems in their respective departments, it is time to pack up again. The Secretariat is the worst hit as the officers here have to keep in tune with the frequent shifting. Is Akhilesh listening.
Political moves
The blue brigade which was busy organising Brahmin sammelans in different parts of the State, has yet again surprised her political opponents. The party has now started organising rallies to win over the minority community. People who had been wondering whether the SP will follow in the BSP’s footsteps got their answer when the SP started holding Brahmin rallies to appease the upper castes.
So, while the SP and BSP are busy trying to outwit each other, the Congress and the BJP are drawing up strategies to make a cut.