Emphatic win ensures smooth sailing for BJP in council, too
LUCKNOW: The BJP’s emphatic win in the Uttar Pradesh MLC polls (local bodies) has ensured that the Yogi government won’t have to face the same ‘hurdles’ in the UP council that it faced during its first tenure (2017-2022).
In the council poll results, declared on Tuesday, the BJP won 33 of the 36 seats and went past the halfway mark in the UP legislative council.
Days after winning the 2022 UP assembly polls, Adityanath had, in the run up to the MLC polls, repeatedly cautioned the cadres, advising them to guard against getting complacent.
“In my first tenure, the opposition created hurdles by blocking initiatives. This time, we must ensure a big win to gain majority,” Adityanath had said during his virtual interaction with block development council and zila panchayat members ahead of the MLC elections.
In the initial days of his first tenure, Adityanath had failed to push through the Uttar Pradesh Control of Organised Crimes (UPCOC) Bill, 2017, due to lack of majority in the upper house (legislative council).
The UPCOC Bill had to be referred to the select committee of the council. Back then, despite BJP and allies dominating the assembly with 325 lawmakers, the opposition Samajwadi Party called the shots in the 100-member council with 61 members against BJP’s 13, BSP’s nine, Congress’s two, RLD one and ‘others’ 12. Two seats were vacant. The BJP’s big win in the council polls means that power dynamics in the upper house would change.
“The biggest takeaway of this win is that in 2017, despite being in a majority in the assembly, several of our government’s proposals would come unstuck as we didn’t have a majority in the council. Now, of course, things will change,” said Ram Chandra Pradhan, who was among the 33 BJP MLCs to have won this time. Pradhan won from Lucknow.
Now, there is speculation that the government would enact a legislation on population control, something that the chief minister had hinted in September 2021. In July 2021, Adityanath had unveiled the government’s population policy (20212030) that was aimed at lowering the birth rate to 2.1 per thousand population by 2026 and 1.9 by 2030. At present the birth rate in the state is 2.7 per thousand.
In BJP’s Lok Kalyan Sankalp Patra, it has promised to increase punishment in cases of forcible conversions and ‘love jihad’. At present those convicted for forcible conversions are sentenced to jail for 1 to 5 years and slapped with a minimum fine of ₹15,000. The BJP has promised to increase the quantum of punishment to 10 years with a fine of ₹1 lakh.
Though opposition accused BJP government of using the state machinery to influence the outcome of these elections, the ruling party has been winning these elections for long. In 2010, when Mayawati-led BSP government was in power, the ruling party had won 34 of the 36 seats. In 2016, the SP0 government under Akhilesh Yadav had won 31 of these seats. In 2018, after Adityanath government came to power, 13 candidates had won the elections unopposed, 10 of them being from the ruling party.
BJP’s sweep means its domination in rural UP and augurs well for it in the run up to the 2024 LS polls. MLC poll winner DP Singh (Rae Bareli) has already been made a minister of state in UP government. Dinesh, a former Congress MLC had unsuccessfully contested the 2019 LS elections against Sonia Gandhi. Party leaders concede, he might be given ticket in 2024.