By IANS,
Lucknow : Contrary to claims that Uttar Pradesh’s ruling Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) had increased its vote share in the state, a study of the recently-concluded Lok Sabha results has shown that the party’s performance in the assembly segments of each parliamentary constituency was also far below the mark.
In sharp contrast to the BSP’s clear win on as many as 206 assembly seats in the May 2007 assembly elections, Mayawati’s aggressive campaign and the much-hyped “social engineering” strategy failed to see her party lead on more than 100 of the state’s 403 assembly segments this time.
According a detailed analysis of the Lok Sabha poll, BSP’s vote share also actually went down from 30.4 percent in 2007 assembly elections to 27 percent this time. The drop of just three percent vote share took the party down from 206 to just 100 seats. What the study has also made amply evident was the fact that each of the other three key political players – the Samajwadi Party (SP), the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) – fared better than the BSP.
The SP, which had a tally of 86 state assembly seats with a vote share of 25.4 percent in 2007, had taken a lead on 118 assembly segments this time when its vote share fell by two percent and its Lok Sabha strength plummeted from 35 in 2004 to 23 now.
The Congress, that had won only 22 assembly seats in 2007 with just 8.6 percent vote share, had now taken a lead on as many as 95 assembly segments with a vote share of 18 percent. It bagged 21 Lok Sabha seats this time.
As for the BJP which had won 51 assembly seats with 16.9 percent vote share in 2007, it polled more than 19.5 percent vote while leading on as many as 62 seats this time, but failing to take its Lok Sabha tally ahead of the 2004 score of 10.
Significantly, the sharp decline in the number of assembly segments where the BSP managed to maintain its earlier lead was quite widespread and covered all regions of the state.
BSP chief and state Chief Minister Mayawati is understood to be worried, on realisation that dependence on sheer caste and religious equations would not pay dividends in the next assembly elections, due in 2012. With the next polls topping her agenda, she has already held a series of meetings with ministers, who have been told in no uncertain terms to improve their functioning and concentrate on improving delivery systems under their respective jurisdictions.
Apart from being asked to hold monthly review meetings of their respective departments, ministers have been divested of powers to transfer officials under their control. “Transfers will now be centralised and all orders will be issued by the chief minister’s personal secretariat,” said an official spokesman.
“The chief minister felt that a lot of quality time of the ministers was wasted on transfer and postings, therefore, they have been asked to keep out of that and let the chief minister’s secretariat handle transfers,” the spokesman added.