Tags:
Journalism of Courage
In the recently concluded Assembly elections, the results have been quite mixed for the bit players. While some, like Jat leader Ajit Singh8217;s Rashtriya Lok Dal RLD and Sharad Pawar8217;s NCP, have been swept out in the singularly BJP-Congress juggernaut, and Mayawati8217;s BSP has barely survived to keep half its tally from the previous election, a surprise debutant has been SP. The party has won seven seats in Madhya Pradesh and has lost by a whisker in about half-a-dozen seats. More importantly, it seems to have nudged out the BSP.
Says a jubilant party general-secretary Amar Singh: 8216;8216;Our focus was on Madhya Pradesh and our efforts have paid off. We were expecting at least 20 seats but it is unfortunate we lost by 70 Dabra, 200, 700, upto 2,500 Pawai votes in several constituencies.8217;8217;
For the BSP, it was a crucial election 8212; it was the first time the party was contesting under the leadership of newly anointed national president Mayawati. But it turned out to be an uneven result 8212; in Chhattisgarh it got two seats, last election it won four seats; in MP it got two, it had seven earlier; in Rajasthan it secured two seats for the first time; and in Delhi, it failed to make a mark yet again.
BSP Parliamentary Party leader Rashid Alvi pins the reasons for this lacklustre performance on one crucial factor 8212; the CBI investigations. 8216;8216;Mayawati was certainly hampered and tied down by the illegal CBI cases against her,8217;8217; says Alvi. The party, however, can take comfort in the fact that its rebel leader in MP, Phool Singh Baraiyya, lost his seat.
Jat leader and heir to former Prime Minister Charan Singh8217;s legacy, Ajit Singh failed to make a mark in the important Jat belt of Rajasthan. Singh8217;s party, the RLD, which had threatened to eat into the Jat votebank, traditionally with the Congress, did not win a single seat in the state.
Nor did the NCP, which barely got one seat in Chhattisgarh.
