Smaller UP parties fail to impress

Shahira Naim

Tribune News Service

Lucknow, May 25

None of the smaller parties in Uttar Pradesh said to be crucial in post-election bargaining cut any ice with the voters this time.

Samajwadi Party national president Akhilesh Yadav’s estranged uncle Shivpal Singh Yadav’s Pragatisheel Samajwadi Party (Lohia) contested 47 of the 80 seats in the state — the largest number of seats contested by any small party.

However, the party forfeited its deposit in every single seat, including Firozabad, where Shivpal was in the fray in a triangular contest with nephew and sitting SP MP Akshay Yadav. The BJP won the seat for the first time after 1998.

The party, which had been generously offered a palatial bungalow as its office within days of coming into existence by the Yogi government, was expected to play spoiler as it was contesting so many seats. However, it failed to make a mark as its candidates polled between 0.1 and 8.54 per cent votes in all seats.

Similarly, BJP’s erstwhile ally Suheldev Bhartiya Samaj Party (SBSP), which claimed to have a hold over the Rajbhar community of Purvanchal, contested 19 seats and lost deposit in all.

SBSP president Om Prakash Rajbhar, till recently a Cabinet minister, had rebelled against Yogi over a range of issues, including the saffron party’s refusal to part with any seat for the Lok Sabha election.

Vowing to teach the BJP a lesson, rebel Rajbhar independently contested 19 seats and supported the Congress and ‘mahagathbandhan’ candidates in a number of other seats.

The result of this defiance was that he was sacked from the government earlier this week and asked to vacate his official bungalow immediately.