Lucknow, The Testing Ground For Akhilesh’s Slogan, Work Would Speak 

K. Ramachandra Murthy

Lucknow: young chief minister of Uttar Pradesh Akhilesh Yadav will be facing a test by fire on Sunday when Lucknow votes in the ensuing Assembly elections. Akhilesh has been claiming that his work would speak for itself (Kaam Bolataa Hai) and his work is most visible in the capital city of Lucknow.

Unlike in Lok Sabha elections in 2014 where Narendra Modi had no one to repudiate his series of allegations effectively what with Sonia Gandhi keeping indifferent health and Rahul Gandhi finding it difficult to find right response, he has now at least four effective players to give him fitting reply and more. Akhilesh Yadav has been very smart in his jibes and Rahul Gandhi has been coming up with punchlines. Dimple Yadav, wife of the chief minister and an MP and Priyanka Vadra, Sonia Gandhi's daughter, have been giving strong retorts to Modi in their own way. One more important difference

between 2014 and now is that Prasant Kishore (PK), electioneering specialist, has defected from Modi to Rahul via Nitish Kumar. The most important slogan that Akhilesh has come up with was Kaam Bola Hai.

Dimple also taunted the PM with "while Modi ji talks about man ki baat, Akhilesh ji talks about Kaam ki baath." When Modi said he is the adopted son of UP since people of Varanasi had sent him to Lok Sabha, Priyanka asked where is the need for an adopted son when two young sons are there in Rahul and Akhilesh. The CM asked, "If Modi ji is the adopted son of UP then who are we?" Rahul Gandhi joked that Modi had started like Shah Rukh Khan and ended as Gabbar Singh. Modi has been waging a lone battle with all the other top leaders of his party keeping a low profile. Modi had addressed big rallies in and around Lucknow attracting huge crowds.

A bastion of the BJP till the last Assembly elections, Lucknow has been the Centre of Advani's Ram Janna Bhoomi movement. With Kalyan Singh as CM the Babri Masjid was felled in 1992. Although PV Narasimha Rao, the then PM, paid the political price, the BJP had lost the gate symbol by showing which the party used to whip up communal frenzy. Atal Behari Vajpayee adopted Lucknow parliamentary seat.

But in 2012 assembly elections Samajwadi Party had swept the city winning seven out of the nine seats.

Akhilesh would be lucky if he can keep the number seats.

The much flaunted Metro Rail is in Lucknow showcasing Akhilesh Yadav's dynamism. While the metro projects in Hyderabad, Bangaluru and Kochi have been languishing for years, the Lucknow Metro Rail Corporation (LMRC) has done a wonderful job by completing a 8.5 km stretch which is ready to be launched in the middle of March. Delhi Metro’s genius Sreedharan had been monitoring the progress.

The trial run has been going on to convince the citizens of Lucknow that the young CM means what he says. Lucknow-Agra Express Way is another achievement that Akhilesh Yadav has been boasting of during the election campaign. Gomti Riverfront and Janeswar Mishra Park are the other signs of progress being showcased by SP government. These are some of the highlights of the development discourse by the chief minister.

The city is witnessing star contest in contonment where HN Bahuguna's daughter Rita Bahuguna Joshi, who recently defected from the Congress, has been fielded by the BJP. She is opposed by Aparna Yadav, daughter-in- law of Mulayam Singh. Aparna was caught in the crossfire during the family feud. She is married to Mulayam's younger son Prateek Singh Yadav who was born to Sardhana Gupta, the second wife of SP's patriarch. After asserting his authority in the party visa vis his father, Akhilesh has shown signs of reconciliation and gave tickets to Aparna whose candidature was announced by Mulayam one year ago. Akhilesh had also accommodated his uncle and Mulayam's bickering younger brother Shivpal Yadav. Mulayam has campaigned for Aparna requesting the voters to keep his honour by electing his bahu. Akhilesh and Dimple also addressed election meetings requesting the people to vote for Aparna.

It is a tough fight since both the candidates belong to famous families. The battle is between Chhoti Bahu and Badi Didi.

The other crucial fight is being waged by another feisty woman Swati Singh. It is a fight for revenge as far as Swati is concerned. Her husband and former BJP Vice President Daya Shankar was arrested for speaking uncharitably about BSP chief Mayawati. Swati was upset when the BSP leaders indulged in counter attack targeting her teenage daughter. She then jumped into politics and she was made the president of BJP Manila Morcha. She has been sparing no effort to avenge her humiliation.

Ironically, the BJP's efforts to regain its glory in assembly polls (It did extremely well in 2014 Lok Sabha elections, though) are being spearheaded by three defectors- Rita Bahuguna Joshi from the Congress, Brijesh Pathak from the BSP, fielded from Lucknow Central, and Neeraj Bora who was with the Congress and the BSP is now BJP candidate in Lucknow West constituency. This has been the way BJP's national president Amit Shaw was trying to beef up his party by encouraging defections from other parties. This tactics paid in Assam when strong leaders from the Congress were persuaded to join the BJP. In the neighbouring Uttarakhand the defectors from the Congress were given 14 out of 70 tickets. The BJP which was proudly announcing that is a party with a difference has been under the new dispensation indulging in horse trading and soliciting defections. Winning is important and not the means adopted to win.

In the assembly elections in 1996, five out of the eight assembly seats from Lucknow were won by the BJP, two by SP and one by the BSP. In 2002, the BJP got four, the SP one, the Congress one while the independents won two seats. In 2007 also the BJP had retained four seats and the SP one. The BSP won two seats and one seat had gone to an independent. While 2007 saw Mayawati wave, the 2012 elections saw a wave in favour of SP under the leadership of Mulayam Singh Yadav. The party had bagged seven seats while the Congress and the BJP got one each (Due to delimitation the number of seats in Lucknow went up to nine). The new constituency is Lucknow North. With the defection of the lone party MLA, Rita Bahuguna, the Congress did not insist on contesting from Lucknow. SP candidates are in the fray on all the nine constituencies.

Three ministers in Akhilesh Yadav's cabinet are involved in a pitched battle to save their seats from spirited challengers. One, Abhishek Mishra is fighting anti-incumbency in Lucknow North. Two, Ravidas Mehrotra is being opposed by BJP's Brijesh Pathak in Lucknow Central constituency beside a candidate from the Congress, though the party has officially asked him to withdraw. Third, SP Shukla was denied a ticket by Akhilesh. A loyalist of Mulayam, Shukla is in the fray as RLD candidates with Mulayam's blessings. He is bent on defeating CM's nominee and cousin Anurag Yadav of the SP. The main challenge to Anurag is from the gutsy woman Swati Singh of the BJP in Sarojini Nagar.

Realising that his sitting MLAs ( like Abhishek Mishra) are not very popular, Akhilesh appealed to the people on Friday to vote for him and the SP if they wish to allow him to continue the good job. Whether the people of Lucknow have appreciated the good work he had done in the second part of his term will be known only on March 11, the day when the votes are counted.