SP: Fallout Of UP Elections.

Mulayam Yadav took a page from the Congress election book and converted OBCs and Muslims into his faithful votebank. In the last election he made the mistake of inducting Kalyan Singh for the Lodh votes and paid dearly for it. He has since gotten rid of his money man (Amar Singh) and is now dealing directly with the Ambanis for money. Kalyan Singh was also fired to bring back the Muslims. Promises were made to OBCs and Muslims (middle class Hindus will pay dearly for that and they would deserve every bit of the punishment) at the expense of the exchequer (like it is done in the Southern Indian states) and then he introduced his son Akhilesh who turned out to be more of an asset that Rahul Gandhi ever was for the Congress. The SP entered the race well prepared. What they did not expect was a complete rejection of Congress by Muslims and an extreme incompetence of the BJP to take advantage of the anti-incumbency wave. They have won big. Really big and are firmly ensconced in UP for the next five years. Those of us with longer attention span than a typical UP voter remember well the days of SP rule. Folks, it was as if the state had become a lawless frontier of sorts. Mulayam introduced the concept of Jumbo ministries. He had close to a hundred ministers. Things we really bad and that is putting it too mildly and charitably.

Akhilesh has promised an end to Goonda Raj. We hope for the sake of UP that he is right. We have to deal with them for five years. Akhilesh is “foreign returned” (although his dad always preaches against use of English and computers etc.) and thus is coming up with these seemingly new concepts like crime free politics in UP. Good luck to him. You see, the SP cadre has been out of power for a long time. They would want to fill their coffers first. No one can stop them from doing so, not even the son and dad combo. Then we will have the OBCs and farmers clamoring for their doles. Of course the Muslims will be ready with their own demands. To ensure longevity of his son’s political career, Mulayam will fulfill all his promises to the Muslims even if it means turning the state into a Pakistan clone (parts of it are already there). Other than the Sahara group and the Ambanis, no one will invest in the state because the corrupt bureaucracy will remain just that.

Am I being too negative? Should I give a chance to the new SP? I am not twenty years old. If I know one thing about people is that they do not change unless they have faced death or some event like that. I do not buy this reinvented SP story. Akhilesh Yadav may be an improvement over his father but his party members are still the same. Muslim appeasement and the largess to the OBCs is going to continue unabated.

In democracy, you deserve the government you vote for. UP voters are going to deal with SP for the next five years. Hopefully they will be happy with their choice. What these voters do not realize is the national implication of SP’s win. Of course that is not their concern. After all, people all over the country vote for regional parties so why not the UP’ites? The price the nation will pay for this will be discussed in yet another post.