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MOSL: INDIA POLITICS-Gauging the people’s pulse-Takeaways from UP political tour

India Politics: Gauging the people’s pulse; Takeaways from UP political tour

 

As the drums roll for the General Elections 2019, we undertook a road trip in Uttar Pradesh (UP) to gauge the on-ground trend and pulse of the people. Over the course of our journey through the Hindi Heartland, we interacted with a host of participants – politicians of all the major parties in UP, editors, journalists, local businessmen and most importantly, VOTERS. In this note, we present key takeaways from the trip. 

The political milieu in Uttar Pradesh: With a population of around 200m+, Uttar Pradesh (UP) is not only India’s most populous state, but it also boasts of the maximum number (80) of Member of Parliaments (MPs). It is a general belief that the road to the Delhi throne traverses through Lucknow (the capital of UP), emphasizing the importance of UP in forming the government at the Center. In fact, the 2014 General Elections saw the BJP, along with its ally Apna Dal, win 73 seats out of the 80 seats in UP. This, in turn, played a crucial role in the BJP winning full majority (282/543 seats) for the first time at the Centre. Subsequently, the BJP also won the UP state elections in Mar’17 with 4/5^th majority. Since then, much water has flown under the bridge. The political context in UP has now changed with the key UP-based regional political parties and traditionally rivals— the SP and the BSP — forming a grand alliance to take on the BJP. Moreover, the Congress has also upped the ante by bringing in Priyanka Gandhi Vadra in a formal role as UP Congress’ in-charge for Western UP. The current context, therefore, suggests that it will be a herculean task for the BJP to repeat its 2014 tally of 73/80 seats.