Some people like Rahul Gandhi matured pretty early in life. Some people like Bakhtiyar Irani and Rahul Mahajan of Bigg Boss fame promise that they never will and yet there are some others like Akhilesh Yadav of SP who threaten to mature but do exactly the opposite. When SP lost miserably in by elections of UP it was maturity on his part to have accepted the verdict but he went absolutely bonkers when he took it so personally and went ahead and challenged Rahul Gandhi for the next battle in UP. Actually, he’s stepping out of his boots here. He’s no comparison to Rahul Gandhi. As you may have noticed Rahul Gandhi did not need any introduction in this post while all the others did. He should first prove his worth and then challenge the high and mighty. Just being a family member of Mulayam Singh’s family is not enough as was proved in Ferozabad where his wife Dimple Yadav lost rather convincingly to Raj Babbar who fought on a Congress ticket. Well, since it was his wife who lost it is quite understandable why he took it so personally otherwise there have been so many candidates from SP who have lost in the past when he never uttered a word. Yeah, wife is a different story. I agree. And it helps him score brownie points with her too who must be feeling dejected after this loss. Though theoretically speaking there is one more possibility. Dimple Yadav may have told Akhilesh to take on Rahul Gandhi in a direct one to one challenge. Quite possible, theoretically at least.

There’s another facet to this SP saga. SP has started believing in traditions and curses a bit too much, even more than the BJP dare I say. First, Mulayam did not visit Noida even after Nithari killings where more than a dozen girls were killed because they say that Chief Minsters of UP who visit Noida are bound to lose or are ousted from their chair. Second, they also say that heavy weights do not personally campaign in by elections. That’s the reason why Mulayam himself did not take part in campaigning. But on both these counts SP was proved wrong despite following the tradition and believing in the curse as well. What it goes to prove is that you don’t win or lose elections because of traditions and curses but on your own merit. And if Akhilesh is challenging Rahul based on some astrological calculations he may have done, I won’t really be surprised at all. Actually, politicians have stopped surprising me altogether, at least most of them. They’ve become rather predictable.

Anyways, in my opinion the cauldron that UP is, has now become a direct three way battle between Congress, BSP and SP although many including those in Congress have written off SP completely. And nobody is even talking about BJP at all. After the wash out in UP they’re not even considered worthy of talking about only. What a pity!! Rajnath Singh needs to hang his head in shame once again. Having said this I really wonder if he ever will. But like I said they are not exactly worth talking about right now.

Coming back to SP I wonder if Akhilesh Yadav has spoken to his astrologers about the effect of having Kalyan Singh in his party? Actually, you don’t need an astrologer to see the irony here. Kalyan Singh was the one who was more or less directly responsible for demolition of Babri Masjid and many fiery speeches against Muslims as well. If you add such people in your coterie and then you also expect Muslims to vote for you, you got to be absolutely crazy to believe that it will work. As is obvious it did not.

I was at Kanpur in summer of 2006 when Mulayam Singh was Chief Minister of UP. I was staying at a relative’s house and there was no electricity for most part of the day and night. I asked the locals about this and they said that since they had not voted for SP in the last municipal elections Mulayam Singh was very angry with residents of Kanpur and he was punishing them for it. And they were not joking. They said that that’s the way Mulayam Singh worked. Well, if this is what you give to people how can you expect them to vote for you? On top of that he roped in Amitabh Bacchhan for a video where he said UP mein jurm kam hai even as innocent girls and boys were being killed in Nithari. Coupled with rampant hooliganism and abuse of power there was no doubt in anyone’s mind that they would lose, astrologers included.

But having said this I believe that they cannot be written off completely as of now. You can’t really write off a party which has Amar Singh in it. Can you? Plus, after the drubbing that they got recently I’m sure they would bounce back sooner than what most of us expect. This is the only state where they have any presence worth talking of. They can’t really let it go so easily. Can they? To what extent do they succeed remains to be seen. And before I sign off for today I would like to remind Akhilesh and his astrologers that actually it’s Mayawati and her BSP who are ruling the roost in the state. Why didn’t he challenge Mayawati? Is it because he’s scared of Mayawati or is it because he doesn’t consider her worthy of a challenge? I don’t know and I don’t think even Akhilesh Yadav does.

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Posted on November 13th, 2009 India calling • Tags: Akhilesh, Bigg Boss, BJP, BSP, Congress, Gandhi, Mahajan, Mayawati, Rahul, SP. • RSS 2.0 feed • Leave a response, or trackback