ROUND THE STATES

New Delhi, 12 May 2006

UPA Strengthened

LEFT SWEEPS W. BENGAL & KERALA

By Insaf

At the end of the prolonged election process for five State Assemblies, three things stand out loud and clear: The Left Front has strengthened its position in the national politics, communal forces are beginning to be eliminated and the Congress has failed to change the ruling UPA’s chemistry of dependency. As Prime Minister Manmohan Singh himself claimed: “It is a victory for the secular forces and a victory for the UPA.” The CPM-led Left Front has swamped West Bengal and notched an emphatic victory in Kerala. Notwithstanding Congress President Sonia Gandhi’s record victory in Rae Bareli, the outcome in Assam, West Bengal, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Pondicherry has little to cheer the Congress which went to battle with high expectations.

The Congress support base has decreased in all the five States, even though the party has emerged almost unhurt. It has retained power in Assam and Pondicherry and has become the main prop for the DMK and its Chief Minister in Tamil Nadu. In Assam, which threw up a hung Assembly, with the Congress winning 52 seats in the 126-member Assembly, against 71 in 2001, the party will have the satisfaction of retaining power, a remarkable feat achieved by Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi for the first time in 30 years. Contrary to predictions that the Congress would lose power, it has returned as the single-largest party. Tarun Gogoi’s strategy paid rich dividends. He worked hard to improve the State’s financial position in the last two years, implemented several development projects and also ensured communal harmony.    

*                       *                       *                                   *                                               *

Impressive Victories

The CPM-led left Front has conclusively defeated its political rivals in West Bengal and Kerala and has for the first time won four seats in Assam. The Front recorded an impressive tally of 220 in the 294-member Assembly. This is a remarkable improvement from the 2001 score of 199 seats, thanks to Chief Minister Buddhadev Bhattacharjee’s reformist image and practical economic policies during the last five years, which earned him greater support in urban areas than during the last 28 years of Left rule in the State. The CPM under Jyoti Basu had already built up its vote banks in rural areas by its land reforms. Buddhadev greatly improved on it by giving the CPM a dynamic thrust as the country’s new, reformist Left. In Kerala, the Front wrested power by winning 99 seats in the 140-member Assembly. Anti-incumbency factor and in-fighting in the State Congress led to the downfall of the Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF).

*                                   *                                               *                                   *                      

Sonia’s Thumping Win

Sonia Gandhi’s thumping victory in the byelection for the Rae Bareli Lok Sabha seat was a foregone conclusion. But the low voter turn-out of merely 43 per cent of the electorate was a big surprise.  The Congress leadership has attributed this to various factors.  First, even in 2004 Lok Sabha poll, the voting percentage was only 48.42.  But she had defeated the Samajwadi candidate by a huge margin of over 2,50,000 votes. This time the margin of victory is more than 4 lakh, a record.  Second, the voters were confident about her sure win and therefore, preferred to stay at home to beat the scorching sun. In some of the polling booths in rural areas, there were more poll officials than voters.  Another little known reason for the low polling was that about 40 per cent of the voters in the constituency are migratory labourers and were away to adjoining States for harvesting crops.

*                                               *                                   *                                               *

Expensive Elections

The Assembly polls for 824 seats in four States and a Union Territory turned out to be a very expensive affair, literally. They are estimated to have cost the nation a whopping Rs.2,000 crore.  Political insiders have also estimated that an average of Rs. 2 crore was spent in each constituency.  Calculated on this basis, the amount which the mainstream political parties spent on these elections crossed Rs.2,000 crore.  The poll expenses in West Bengal and Pondicherry were comparatively less than what was spent in Tamil Nadu, Assam and Kerala.  Significantly, 90 per cent of the estimated expenditure has been spent by the candidates of two or three major political parties.  According to the Election Commission norms, maximum poll expenses per candidate for the bigger States is Rs.10 lakh and for UTs like Pondicherry Rs.5 lakh.

*                                               *                                   *                                               *

Mulayam Another “Vikas Purush”

UP’s Chief Minister and Samajwadi Party supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav has fired his first salvo for the State Assembly poll about eight months away.  He has embarked on a publicity blitzkrieg: full-page advertisements in leading newspapers, projecting him as a “Vikas Purush” and his Government as the champion of development.  This is very much like what the Vajpayee Government did for itself prior to the Lok Sabha poll in 2004.  Mulayam Singh has pledged in these advertisements to make Uttar Pradesh an “Uttam Pradesh”, a “model State” to win friends and influence public opinion. Attention is particularly focused on his Government’s approval for 7,000 MW of power projects in the next six years, electrification of about 6,000 villages and improvements in such areas as agriculture, infrastructure, drinking water, health and education.

*                                               *                                   *                                               *

Crackdown On Naxals

Now that the State elections are over, the Union Government has finalized re-deployment of Central para-military forces tied up with the polling exercise. All the 772 Companies of the Central para-military forces spared for the poll duty are being moved to Chhattisgarh, to enable intensified counter-offensive against the Naxalites who have made the new State their latest target.  The plan is to undertake a joint offensive by the Central forces and the State police, using helicopters to para-drop the personnel into the heavily forested Naxal hideouts.  The Union Home Ministry has also decided to set up a dedicated anti-Naxal cell to coordinate intelligence, development outreaches and implementation of policies to check the rising Naxal menace, which has now enveloped 15 States.

 *                                              *                                   *                                               *

Telangana Remains Elusive

Statehood for Telangana remains elusive as ever.  Clearly, the Congress, which leads the UPA Government at the Centre and rules Andhra Pradesh, is in no hurry to oblige the Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS).  Nor does it seem to be keen to expedite the Pranab Mukherjee Committee report on the Statehood demand, notwithstanding frequent deadlines set by the TRS and its chief, Chandrasekhar Rao, now the Union Labour Minister. Chief Minister Rajasekhara Reddy too is evidently opposed to the creation of Telangana.  He maintains that the demand for a separate State was the result of the neglect by the earlier Governments. But now that his Government has launched several development programmes for the backward region, there is no need for a separate Telangana.

*                                               *                                   *                                               *

Andolan Agaisnt Supreme Court

The Narmada Bachao Andolan, led by Medha Patkar and supported by several NGOs and celebrities, is getting curiouser and curiouser. It has now turned its agitation against the Supreme Court’s order last week, allowing continuation of the construction of the Sardar Sarovar project across the river Narmada in Gujarat. Patkar organized a sit-in outside the Court, describing the order as “injustice” to the people displaced due to the dam – and subsequently by raising of its height.  Patkar has vowed afresh to continue her agitation.  She now accuses the Centre of making a “mockery” of the rehabilitation of the project-affected families.---INFA

(Copyright, India News and Feature Alliance)