Allahabad, Feb 19: With barely 48 hours left before Uttar Pradesh goes to the polls again in the second phase of polling on February 22, electioneering has reached a crescendo in a last ditch effort by political parties to swing the electoral tide in their favour.Sunday promises to be an eventful day which will decide the fortunes of several heavyweights including the Bharatiya Janata Party PM-in-waiting, Atal Behari Vajpayee, the Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee (UPCC) chief and Nehru-Gandhi family loyalist Narain Dutt Tiwari, and the Samajwadi Party's senior leader and present union communications minister Beni Prasad Verma among others.
But even as SP chief Mulayam Singh Yadav pedals at a frenetic pace on his socialist bicycle followed by the blue pachyderm of the Bahujan Samaj Party which lumbers behind painstakingly in a futile attempt to regain lost ground, it is the saffron juggernaut which seems to be way ahead in the race this time round as well. Political observers maintain that the SP should``consider itself lucky'' if it manages a tally of 10-12 seats out of the total 85 parliamentary seats from UP while the BSP will probably bag a miniscule two or three seats at the most.
In most of the constituencies which are going to the polls this weekend, BJP is a frontrunner according to available indications. In the state capital Lucknow for instance Atal Behari Vajpayee is all set for a landslide win against SP candidate Muzzafar Ali. The prince of Kotwara who is more known for his forays into the world of film making and fashion designing has been singularly unsuccessful in his ham-handed attempts to sell his ``jashne Avadh'' package to politically enlightened Lucknovites. In fact, it appears doubtful if the distinguished Muslim will even be able to retain the loyalty of the Muslim electorate which, of late, has been showing a definite leaning towards the erstwhile untouchable saffron brigade. ``Clearly, Vajpayee's masterful oratory and his recent refrain that Muslims are not merely votebanksbut `insaan' (human beings) and `bharat mata ki santan' (sons of mother India) have proved to be bigger showstealers than even Ali's films,'' quipped a senior BJP functionary.
Unfortunately for BJP's rivals the Congress, SP and BSP the victory march for their candidates is not all that certain. In the hills of Nainital, UPCC president N. D. Tiwari faces a tough battle even on home turf. The competition is being ironically posed by none other than Ila Pant, former Congress leader and wife of an existing Congress heavyweight, K. C. Pant. She is contesting on the BJP ticket. Daughter-in-law of a former UP CM Govind Vallabh Pant, Ila Pant has a sizeable local following. More than that, however, Atal's charisma has worked wonders in this hilly constituency, spread over four districts, which seems to have remained immune to the charms of the Congress' star campaigner Sonia Gandhi.
And despite the crowds which she attracted during her visit to Haldwani about a fortnight ago, the odds are still inBJP's favour.
In yet another hilly tract of the state, Pillibhit, it is a battle between the two daughters-in-law of the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty, Maneka Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi.'' Contesting as an independent candidate supported by the BJP, environment crusader Maneka Gandhi has managed to nullify the Sonia factor in a constituency where she is reportedly far ahead of her rivals on the popularity charts.
Needless to say, the SP and BSP are facing a tough time in all the constituencies going to the hustings on February 22. Notable among those who the party had pinned its hopes on and who now faces the grim prospect of defeat is union communication minister and right hand man of Mulayam Singh Yadav, Beni Prasad Verma. Irked by the pro-Kurmi attitude of the minister and the favours doled out by him for the community while in office, the over 2.5 lakh Muslim population of his constituency, Kaisarganj, has sworn to ``teach him a lesson.''
Not surprisingly, the mood in the state BJP camp is upbeat. Reacting tothe Congress' latest war cry of ``poore desh se nata hai, sarkar chalana aata hai,'' (we have links with the whole country and know how to run the government), a BJP hardliner retorts, tongue-in-cheek, ``This should be modified to `poore desh se nata hai, poori duniya main khata hai' (we have linkw with the whole country and have bank accounts in the whole world).
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
