BJP once again turns to Ram to bolster flagging appeal in Uttar Pradesh

The reason why the UP election results in May were a showpiece for the Bharatiya Janata Party BJP was that they represented in the partys opinion Prime Minister Narendra Modis continuing forward march Yet the overblown nature of this selfcongratulatory assessment will be evident if the outcome of the five elections which took place at the time are taken into consideration A more realistic picture will be available if all the results are taken together for it will show that the original verdict was 32 in the Congresss favour with an outright win in Punjab and emerging as the largest party in Goa and ManipurPrime Minister Narendra ModiIt is another matter that what the Congress won in the swings it lost in the roundabouts because a nimblefooted BJP managed to lure away a sufficient number of MLAs to its side to rob the Congress of its No1 position in the Goa and Manipur assemblies But if the BJP had been humble enough to look at the results in their entirety then it might not have gloated over its success in UP That election was one which the BJP could not but win because its principal opponent the Samajwadi Party SP had shot itself in the foot via its internal factional battlesIt was the belief however that the BJP had decimated the opposition in the countrys largest state which apparently made the party commit what may turn out to be a fateful mistake by choosing one of the most hawkish of the hardliners to be the Chief Minister True Yogi Adityanath has toned down some of his utterances in deference to Modis development for all rhetoric But it is as an administrator that his inadequacies have come to the fore thereby showing that devotion to the saffron cause may give a legup while climbing the official ladder but it doesnt help in running the governmentSince law and order in UP has always been dismal it will be unfair to blame the present government for its failures on this count But what has attracted countrywide attention are the deaths of scores of children in the states hospitals Considering that UP once witnessed a Rs 9000 crore over 1 billion scam in connection with a rural health programme when two Chief Medical Officers were killed and their deputy died in custody the latest tragedy may appear to be a part of a dreadful pattern But its hurtful impact on the Chief Minister and his party cannot be deniedTo make matters worse the upsurge of student demonstrations in Banaras Hindu University BHU over what the Vice Chancellor initially dismissed as an incident of eveteasing has been seen as yet another evidence of dissatisfaction with the ruling dispensation The unrest in BHU has followed the defeat of the BJPs affiliate the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad ABVP in student union elections in Jawaharlal Nehru University Delhi University Hyderabad University Gauhati University and elsewhere The Vice Chancellors ouster has been sought by among others the National Commission for Women but a BJP government can hardly be expected to remove someone with a Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh RSS backgroundThere is little doubt however that episodes such as these have deprived the BJP of much of the sheen of its victory in less than six months The party will be wary therefore of the reports that the rift in the SP between Mulayam Singh Yadav and Akhilesh Yadav has healed It is the rupture between father and son which had contributed largely to the BJPs success by undermining its biggest challengerBut it isnt only the reconciliation which will be of concern to Yogi Adityanath and Co Of even greater worry will be the possibility of the SP under Akhilesh teaming up with Mayawatis Bahujan Samaj Party BSP to take on the BJP Akhilesh has been talking of such an alliance for quite some time although his father is against it But now that the son is fully in control of the party a tieup between the SP and the BSP is a distinct possibility not least because the two know that the BJP cannot be unseated otherwiseThe SPBSP combinations advantage is that their combined vote share of 44 per cent in the last assembly election the SP 218 and the BSP 222 is higher than the BJPs 397 per cent If the Congresss 63 per cent is added to the SPBSPs 44 then the trio becomes a formidable force It was only to be expected therefore for Yogi Adityanath to turn to building a 100metre tall statue of Lord Ram on the banks of the Saryu river to boost the BJPs fortunesSince he appears incapable of providing efficient governance recourse to religion to consolidate the Hindu vote is the only way out for the Chief Minister and his party There are also reports that he will be fielded by the BJP as a campaigner in the upcoming elections in Himachal Pradesh and Gujarat to rev up the partys position with a strong dose of Hindutva at a time when the economic slowdown has robbed Modis vikas development slogan of much of its appeal The BJP has probably never felt the need for a saffron hawk more than at present