Taking temperature up panchayat poll results give sp hope but it can’t bank on just that

Taking temperature up panchayat poll results give sp hope but it can’t bank on just that

The recently conducted UP panchayat polls certainly give BJP cause for reflection. Although such polls aren’t usually contested on party symbols, the state BJP this time declared a list of candidates for the 3,050 zila panchayat ward member seats. Data available till Wednesday suggested it was trailing the opposition SP, with BSP in third place and Congress a distant fourth. Plus, BJP suffered setbacks in Prayagraj, Ayodhya, Varanasi and Mathura while only just holding on to CM Adityanath’s bastion of Gorakhpur.

While these poll results can’t be seen as definitive proof of pro- or anti-incumbency, they do signify a political churn. And with the mother of all electoral prizes, the UP assembly polls, slated for next year, the governing BJP would do well to take corrective action. True, BJP had come third in the 2015-16 panchayat polls in UP and gone on to win a massive majority in the 2017 state assembly election. But the political context has changed considerably given the Covid pandemic. In fact, the conduct of the panchayat polls itself was a highly risky affair with claims being made of many succumbing to Covid on poll duty.

The second Covid wave has stretched UP’s healthcare infrastructure painfully thin, with infections and deaths rising even as vaccination and testing remain suboptimal. But this doesn’t mean automatic advantage for SP. While SP chief Akhilesh Yadav today can be said to be fully in control of his party, he hasn’t offered an alternative vision for the state. In the 2017 polls, SP’s tie-up with Congress cost it dearly, showing that simple poll alliances and caste calculations won’t be enough to halt the BJP electoral juggernaut. A positive governance narrative along with mass outreach including Covid relief is needed from the opposition trying to counter Adityanath’s and PM Modi’s popularity in UP.