Anger against Cong. may tell on U.P. allies

SP, BSP, RLD find it difficult to own or disown UPA regime

Supporters of RJD chief Ajit Singh in Anroha. Will the anger against Congress reflect on its allies?

The Congress as a political party has ceased to matter in Uttar Pradesh, which sends the largest number of members to the Lok Sabha, since the then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi performed shilanyas for a Ram Temple at Ayodhya in 1989.

However, in the 2009 election, it did remarkably well, securing 21 out of the 80 Lok Sabha seats, a pleasant surprise to the rank and file themselves. But the win had more to do with the image of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh than anything else. Now with much water flowing under the bridge since then, the anger against the Congress yet again is palpable as was evident in the 2012 Assembly election in which it got just 21 seats in a House of 403.

The script was in a way written on the prospects of the party in the general election. However, perhaps what was not evident at that time was that the anguish against it would rub off on the parties that were either part of or were supporting the UPA government.

Unlike the BJP, which can go all out against the Congress for its alleged acts of omission and commission, inflation and corruption, the Samajwadi Party, the Bahujan Samaj Party and the Rashtriya Lok Dal have to be circumspect about their questioning of the Congress. For, beyond a point it does not have the same impact.

While the RLD led by Ajit Singh is part of the UPA, Mulayam Singh’s SP and the Mayawati-headed BSP were extending support from outside.

The Congress appears to have earned much ill-will, thanks to the full-throated campaign by its rivals against corruption and inflation. Its allies have also been reeling under the impact as they find it difficult to disown or own the UPA regime.

In Etah town this correspondent, in his bid to talk to a cross-section of voters, ran into septuagenarian Brahmanand Gupta, who is the national vice-president of the Brij Vikas Party that claims to further the interests of the region. “People want a change. They are sick and tired of inflation and stories of corruption. I am reminded of 1977 when people angry over the sterilisation drive of Sanjay Gandhi wiped out the Congress,” he said.

A senior SP leader also invokes the 1977 scenario. “The Congress would not even cross the 50-seat mark in this election. It would record its worst performance,” he says as his party workers nod in agreement.