LESSON 54
Most valuable democratic right
In the third phase, elections will be held in 107 parliamentary
constituencies spread over nine states of Bihar, Gujarat, Jammu and
Kashmir, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Sikkim, Uttar Pradesh,
and West Bengal, and two Union Territories of Dadra and Nagar Haveli
and Daman and Diu.
“Nearly 14.40 crore (144 million) voters will be entitled to vote at these elections in 165,112 polling stations”.
Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) President and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister
Mayawati was among the first voters in Lucknow, the state capital, and
she claimed her party would bag most of the state’s 80 Lok Sabha seats.
“I have begun my day with voting, which I have always felt is everyone’s prime duty,” she said.
The stars trooped out and so did villagers on Thursday as millions
of poor and the affluent voted in the third leg of the General
Elections that even veteran politicians admitted was destined to give
the country another coalition government.
Voters queued up outside some 165,000 polling centres in 107 Lok
Sabha seats spread across nine states and two union territories in a
10-hour exercise.
A whopping 144 million voters - of the country’s total 714 million - were eligible to vote on Thursday.
1,567 candidates contesting in the third round
of polling that will wrap up 372 Lok Sabha seats, leaving two more
rounds to go May 7 and 13. The millions of votes will be counted May 16.
Even as men and women stood in winding queues in urban and rural
areas, overseen by armed security personnel.
The third round of polling covers the whole or part of Bihar,
Gujarat, Jammu and Kashmir, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra,
Uttar Pradesh, Sikkim, West Bengal, Dadar and Nagar Haveli, and Daman
and Diu.
45 percent vote in third phase in Uttar Pradesh
Lucknow, April 30 (IANS)
The country’s most populous state Uttar Pradesh recorded 45 percent
voting in the third phase of elections Thursday, Election Commission
said. More than half of the state’s 22.3 million voters chose to stay
away from polling.
Officials said that no untoward incident was reported from any of the 15 constituencies that went to polls.
The
state capital Lucknow recorded another abysmally low voter turnout at
34.6 percent. ‘However, it was better than the 31 percent in 2004,’
quipped a returning officer here.
The
state’s prominent constituency Rae Bareli, polled a relatively
respectable 46 percent. This is higher than theconstituency Amethi that recorded 39 percent polling during the second
phase April 23.
The fate
of 256 candidates was decided at 24,976 polling booths spread across 15
constituencies. The state has a total of 80 Lok Sabha seats.
The
highest turnout was reported from Jhansi and Sitapur where as many as
51 percent voters came out to exercise their franchise.
Mohanlalganj, adjacent to Lucknow, had the lowest number of seven candidates and saw 43 percent turnout.
Kanpur,
the state’s key industrial hub, witnessed 39 percent polling.
Fatehpur, where the key tussle is between son and grandson of former prime ministers, recorded 43 percent turnout.
In 2007 during the assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh, Mayawati’sMayawati has all the following qualities:
She is the Accomplished One
* Far away from internal conflict
* Destroyer of defilements
* Worthy of requisites
*Devoid of secrets and evil doing
Perfectly Self
Awakened;
* Knows all things by herself
Endowed with
Knowledge and Virtue
* Knowledge
* Virtue
* Endowed
Supreme trainer of persons to be tamed
* supreme or peerless
* persons
* tamed
* trainer
Well Spoken;
* Speaking Good & Beneficial things.
i. Good & Benificial:
ii. ~ Good & Beneficial
iii. Good & ~ Beneficial
iv. ~ Good & ~ Beneficial
* Some may like the message some may dislike the message
The money power, caste calculations and the fundamentalist designs in
the post poll arrangements will never succeed in preventing Mayawati in
2009, Behenji after improving her chances in 2009 shall become the
Prime Minister of India in 2009.
Yes, she is set to be the Prime
Minister here and now.
This is not a forecast but a confirmation of her qualities, such as
1.
Art of Giving
2. Virtue
3. Renunciation
4. Wisdom
5. Self-Effort
6. Forebearance
7. Truthfulness
8. Resolution
9. Universal Love
10. Equanimity
With these qualities, Behenji has demonstrated
her Courage of beating a political opponent , implemented Sharing of
political power to all communities, shown her Wisdom of following the
footsteps of Dr. Ambedkar, the champion of downtrodden, and possess the
Energy to lead this country and what else is expected to become a
ruler?
These four unfailing mark a ruler:
Courage, Sharing, Wisdom and Energy.
– ThiruValluvar 382
In 2007
Bahen MAYAWATI became UP CM!
2009 MAHA MAYAwati the Prabuddha Bharatha Matha will be the PM!
“I have begun my day with voting, which I have always felt is
everyone’s prime duty. I had other important things on my agenda but I
made up my mind that before setting off for my election campaign in
other parts of the state I will cast my vote for my party’s candidate
Akhilesh Das. That is why I am here even without having my morning tea
or breakfast.”
Mayawati strolled into the polling station with her most trusted
lieutenants - BSP’s Brahmin mascot cum national general secretary
Satish Misra and cabinet secretary Shashank Shekhar Singh.
Misra and Singh also cast their votes at the same polling station along with Akhilesh Das.
Predicting a clean sweep for himself, Das told reporters: “The last
election was different with Atal Bihari Vajpayee on the scene but
despite him the voting percentage had gone abysmally low largely on
account of the people’s disillusionment with the BJP. People are
terribly unhappy with Vajpayee’s nominee Lalji Tandon this time.”
Syed Firdaus Ashraf profiles the Queen’s men who run Uttar Pradesh,
and explains why they are so important to the chief minister.
Political parties needs both mass support and brains in the coterie to run it.
Unlike other political parties where its leaders are more than willing
to appear before the media with their views, that is not true for the
Bahujan Samaj Party.
BSP supremo Mayawati rules the party with an iron hand. No one is
permitted to speak to the media without her permission.
Uttar Pradesh has been under Mayawati’s rule for two years now, but
the public still don’t know who really runs the show.
Of the 200-plus BSP legislators and the huge state bureaucracy, only
six privileged people can meet Mayawati without an appointment. The
rest can only meet the chief minister when she summons them to her
presence.
Babusen Kushwaha: A phone call away
Babusen Kushwaha hails from Banda in Uttar Pradesh’s Bundelkhand
region. He came close to the BSP supremo through another party leader,
Naseemuddin Siddiqui.
Today, Kushwaha handles the BSP’s finances. He alone knows, besides
Mayawati, where the party’s funds have been invested and how to get
better returns.
Kushwaha is from the Nakhuda (boatmen) community. A phone call away
from Mayawati, this trusted lieutenant can even visit her home in the
middle of the night in the event of a crisis.
He never sits in front of Mayawati
Naseemuddin Siddiqui holds four portfolios in Mayawati’s government,
including agriculture and industry.
An old-timer, he was among the very few leaders who did not fall out
with Mayawati after she took charge of the party after BSP founder and
her mentor Kanshi Ram had a debilitating stroke.
His loyalty, BSP insiders say, comes from his army background and love
for his mother.
He gave up his job in the army, where he held a lower posting, to be
with his dying mother. She lived for six years before passing away.
After that, he joined the BSP and became a loyal follower of Kanshi
Ram and Mayawati.
As a sign of respect, he never sits in front of Mayawati.
Siddiqui is the only Muslim leader in the BSP’s top leadership. He
also collects funds for the party which he then hands over to
Kushwaha.
Brain behind Maya’s social engineering
A Rajya Sabha member and chairman of the State Advisory Board, Satish
Chand Mishra practised law before joining the BSP. His father T S
Mishra was a judge.
Many believe Mishra was once close to Bharatiya Janata Party leader
Atal Bihari Vajpayee; the latter even attended Mishra’s house warming
party in the 1990s.
He proved his legal skills when Mayawati appointed him as UP’s
advocate general. Mishra defended his party chief in the Taj Corridor
scam when cases were registered against Mayawati for approving a
project to build shopping malls and multiplexes near the Taj Mahal in
violatation of established norms.
When Mayawati’s government lost power in 2003, Mishra went back to
practicing law. Observers credit him with the idea of social
engineering, of Brahmin-SC/ST unity. The strategy proved effective in
the May 2007 assembly election when the BSP formed a government on its
own steam.
Mishra is the BSP’s suave face and advises the government on important
projects in his role as chairman of the state advisory board.
Interestingly, Amar Singh held a similar post when Mulayam Singh Yadav
was chief minister.
The key strategist
Cooperative Minister Swami Prasad Maurya is another key BSP strategist.
A long-time Mayawati loyalist, he is also the party’s Uttar Pradesh
president. Barring 2007, he has won election to the state assembly
from the Congress stronghold of Rae Bareli.
Maurya is a shrewd political operator who constantly interacts with
party workers in the field. If he wins the Lok Sabha election from
Kushinagar, he will move to New Delhi, where clearly important
assignments await him.
Caste demography is on his fingertips
Social Welfare Minister Indrajit Saroj is said to know the exact
statistics of the caste divide in every village of Uttar Pradesh. The
figures, BSP insiders exclaim with wonder, are on his fingertips.
Saroj calculates the caste demography in every constituency and
estimates how strong a BSP candidate can be. He also coordinates with
BAMSEF, the organisation of committed SC/ST activists Kanshi Ram
established, which provided the loyal cadres when he launched the BSP
in April 1984.
He is so influential in the party that he could deny an electoral
nomination to a BSP candidate if BAMSEF feels s/he may not win an
election.
The de facto chief minister
The administrative head of a state government is a senior Indian
Administrative Service officer with the title of chief secretary, who
reports to the chief minister.
After her election in May 2007, Mayawati created the post of state
cabinet secretary and nominated former helicopter pilot Shashank
Shekhar Singh to the job. Chief Secretary Atul Kumar Gupta was
instructed to report to Singh.
Later, following a Public Interest Litigation, the Lucknow high court
ruled in favour of the chief secretary’s position and said an IAS
officer would not report to a non-IAS officer.
If sources in Lucknow are to be believed, Gupta does not officially
report to Singh, but unofficially that impression may not hold. After
all, the cabinet secretary is one of Mayawati’s closest aides.
Singh is often described as the state’s de facto chief minister and
reportedly has a role in major government decisions.
He is a wellknown face in Lucknow’s public life, harking back to the
days when he saved then chief minister Vishwanath Pratap Singh’s life
after the helicopter they were travelling in nearly crashed.
During the tenure of another Congress chief minister Veer Bahadur
Singh — who The Illustrated Weekly of India called ‘The Man With 64
Portfolios’ — Singh brokered a peace deal with adamant Bharatiya
Kisan Union leader Mahendra Singh Tikait. He was rewarded with the
title, Principal Secretary (Civil Aviation).
He established a fine relationship with Mayawati when she became chief
minister for the first time in 1994. He also enjoyed good ties with
Mayawati’s bitter enemy Mulayam Singh Yadav, but they fell out after
Yadav unsuccessfully tried to get Singh to turn against Mayawati in
the Taj Corridor case.
The grip of change
B. Kolappan
Party: Bahujan Samaj Party
Constituency: Kanyakumari
State: Tamil Nadu
Mission statement: I want to be an instrument of change
P. Sivakami got a head start over the others. She completed the first
round of her campaign in Kanyakumari, while other candidates were
waiting for their parties to finalise alliances. A former IAS officer,
she quit the service to join politics. And she chose Kanyakumari
because of its high literacy rate (next only to Coimbatore) and the
fact that it has the highest per capita income in the State.
“These two aspects make me believe that people in the constituency
will go for a candidate like me,” says the 53-year-old Bahujan Samaj
Party contestant. This explains why she chose this general constituency
despite being a Dalit.
The author of four novels and a hundred short stories, she has
published the English version of her Tamil novel, Pazhaiana Kazhithalum
with the title “The grip of change.”
Ms. Sivakami rejects the argument that in this communally sensitive
constituency — where Christians and Hindus are always waiting for an
opportunity to settle political scores — she does not stand much
chance.
“Tell me which constituency is not communally sensitive? The problem
persists across the country. If it is not religion, it is caste. This
should change. In the last 10 years, the world has changed a lot and
you cannot afford to remain unchanged. In Kanyakumari, I want to be an
instrument of change,” she stresses.
In contrast to the high-voltage campaign of the main political
parties, hers is restrained. But even so, her name is familiar to all
the households in the district. She meets leaders and office-bearers of
various organisations and addresses street corner meetings.
She rejects the argument that she is an outsider in the
constituency, saying her husband belongs to the district. “I have close
contacts with many social organisations in the district. I am also
aware of its problems,” she says.
Ms. Sivakami says she has no regrets about quitting the IAS to test
political waters. “Many asked me why I quit the service when the pay
commission recommendations were being implemented. They say I would
have benefited heavily. But I know what I am doing.”
She says that as ex-IAS officer, she has had the advantage of
working closely with politicians. “I have studied politicians and how
they function. I am better equipped for the job,” she says.
Irrespective of caste, creed, and
religion everyone have the Right to Equality
System of casteism is the
issue of the past. At present, in Bahujan Samaj Party people of
different castes like Brahmins, Thakur, Kshatriya, Vaishya, Jatt Sikh
to the people like schedule castes and schedule tribes
work together for the betterment and the progress of the country”.
Dr. Bhim Rao Ambedkar wrote our Constitution, which came into
force on 26th January 1950. Since then the concept of casteism has been
reduced to a great extent. He created a feeling of togetherness and
brotherhood in the people of different castes and helped them in
getting their rights.”
Irrespective of caste, creed, and
religion everyone have the Right to Equality.
In Uttar Pradesh, the people irrespective of their caste or creed or
without any pressure of any community elected their leader Ms.
Mayawati.
Moreover, people of the SC/STs, today enjoy reservation in
almost all government jobs and education institutes across the country.
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caste and creed, money, temple and mosque or by any kind of emotional
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