Poll battle for Uttar Pradesh nears end

high-pitched, more than a month-long assembly election battle in five states finally came to a close with the end of campaigning in Uttar Pradesh on Monday evening.

The focus is likely to return to governance now because the next round of assembly elections — in Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh — are quite some time away, towards the yearend.

The hurly-burly of polls has kept most Union ministers, as well as Prime Minister Narendra Modi, away from office as they were actively involved in canvassing for the BJP, especially in the country’s most populous state UP.

Their presence will be solicited more in New Delhi now as the government’s shock recall of two high-value banknotes in November has threatened to slow down India’s growth story.

The final phase of polling in UP on Wednesday covers 40 assembly seats across seven districts, but the focus is on Varanasi, Modi’s parliamentary constituency.

The BJP, pushing to regain power in UP after 15 years, shifted gear from development issues to a Hindutva plank in the last rounds of the sevenphase staggered elections in the state.

The party played all its aces to fight off the challenge from its main opponents — an alliance between the ruling Samajwadi Party and Congress, and a resurgent BSP of four-time chief minister Mayawati.

The election outcome in Uttar Prades, Uttarakhand, Punjab, Goa and Manipur on March 11 is expected to influence the political line of the NDA government as well as the opposition parties.

Also, the UP result may alter the arithmetic when the parties elect a new President, as incumbent Pranab Mukherjee’s term ends in July.

“The political parties mobilised their strength to touch the finish line. The party or alliance that does a Usain Bolt will form the government,” KM Prasad, a political observer, said.

The BJP ran an aggressive campaign in Uttar Pradesh, which in the 2014 general elections gave the party 71 of the 80 members that the state sends to Parliament.