In the recent Uttar Pradesh Panchayat elections, BJP has scored a big victory over its nearest rival, Samajwadi Party. So far, the results of 17 Zila Panchayat Adhyaksha (District Council chairperson) have been declared and BJP has won all except one, Etawah – the family bastion for Akhilesh Yadav.
In Western Uttar Pradesh, where the party was supposed to lose given the intensity of the ongoing farmers’ protests in the region, BJP won all seats. In fact, in many districts including Agra, Ghaziabad, Gautam Buddha Nagar, Amroha, and Meerut, BJP’s candidates have been elected unopposed.
This shows that despite all the media hullabaloo about BJP’s electoral prospects being harmed due to the farmers’ protests, it is still the most popular party among the electorates. Except for the protestors with ulterior motives, farmers do understand that the farm bills would free them from the tyranny of mandis and end up boosting agricultural income.
Akhilesh Yadav, whose party could not win a single seat so far except Etawah, is rattled by BJP’s victory and said that BJP is using district administration to register fake cases against SP candidates.
In a statement issued here, Akhilesh said, “BJP is hell bent on insulting the public and democracy. The public has defeated the BJP in the panchayat elections, and so the BJP now is indulging in ‘dhaandli‘ (fraud) to regain its lost dignity.”
“It is using fear and greed, and dreaming to grab the posts of zila panchayat chairpersons and kshetra panchayat chairpersons,” Akhilesh added.
Thanks to Yogi’s relentless effort to improve the law and order situation in the state, crime has declined substantially and a large number of national and international businesses are making investments in Uttar Pradesh. BJP is expected to win the 2022 assembly election with an even greater majority as compared to 2017.
In 2017 Assembly polls, BJP managed to receive a gigantic mandate by securing a 41.4 per cent vote share, which translated to the party winning 325 seats in a 403-member state assembly. Nobody had anticipated such a huge wave of Yogi Adityanath in the state and the opposition and detractors were left dumbfounded at the magnitude of the victory.
Fast forward four years, Yogi has become the tallest leader in the country. From developing UP into an industrial state to reducing crime to tackling the first and second wave of the coronavirus pandemic effectively, UP has grown strength to strength with Yogi at the helm.
As reported by TFI, according to an ABP-C Voter survey conducted in March earlier this year, if elections were to held now, BJP would storm into power once again. The BJP is projected to win 289 seats in the 403-seat Uttar Pradesh Assembly. Meanwhile, SP is projected to be the second-largest party with 59 seats followed by BSP with 38 seats but not posing any real challenge to the BJP.
BJP can afford to let its guard down and go easy on the election preparations but ‘ruthless’ seems to be the keyword passed along from the party high command. The preparations have begun and despite the sorry situation of the opposition especially the BSP, the BJP does not want to leave any loophole in its electoral preparedness. There is no doubt that Yogi is storming back to power, the only question is, by what margin?
