This Week Uttar Pradesh: Why bother to contest

Isolated in Opposition

Even after its election defeat,there is little sympathy for the BSP from the other opposition parties. In fact,it remains politically isolated. No opposition party liked its noisy walkout on the very first day of the new Assembly. Later,during the current session,Opposition members could be often heard criticising it. Leader of the Opposition Swami Prasad Maurya has been trying to keep the morale of the BSP men high with the usual methods of staging protests and walkouts,but the demoralisation is obvious. Last week,when some SP MLAs remarked that,like others,the BSP MLAs too were getting a feel of freedom after five years,there was no objection from the BSP benches.

The new CLP leader

The appointment of Pradeep Mathur as leader of the Congress Legislature Party is said to be the first belated step in the process of revitalisation of the state Congress,which had been expected to begin soon after the drubbing in the Assembly elections. Mathur succeeds Pramod Tiwari who had been CLP leader for 22 years. About Tiwari,it was said that he was over-friendly with successive state governments,even the Mayawati government which never had a working relationship with the opposition. Immediately after his appointment,Mathur said he would lead an aggressive Congress in the Assembly. In a speech in the House,however,Mathur praised Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav for attending the House regularly,unlike his predecessor who,according to him,rarely showed her face there. Interestingly,the remark came minutes after the chief minister had blamed the UPA government for giving an environmental NOC to Mayawati’s controversial memorial project in Noida.