By Staff Reporter
From the first Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, to the incumbent, Narendra Modi, nine of India’s fourteen heads of government have been elected from Uttar Pradesh, or UP as it is popularly known.
UP is home to over 241 million people, which by itself makes it more populous, if we exclude India, than all but three other countries in the world: China, the United States, and Indonesia. Each general election, it also returns 80 out of the 543 members of the Lok Sabha of India’s parliament. In other words, more than one out of seven Indian lower house lawmakers are elected from UP.
Ads by
Naturally, UP is pivotal to who forms the national government. It also acts as a bellwether state for political trends and electoral outcomes. Rarely is a party that loses big in UP still able to rule at the centre. For the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), UP has been a bastion for over three decades, but especially after Narendra Modi chose to contest from Varanasi in 2014. In that election, the BJP got 71 out of 80.
In the last hustings, their tally, though down by nine, was still an impressive 62. The upcoming election, whose first phase on April 19 is already upon us, will cover parts of UP too. No wonder the Hindi heartland state has been a focal point for political analysts, with the performance of the BJP and its competitors under close scrutiny.
“Double Engine Sarkar”
The BJP, under the central leadership of Narendra Modi and state leadership of Yogi Adityanath, has maintained a formidable hold on UP’s electorate. How has this been accomplished? The party’s long-term strategy has three key components.
The first of these is to leverage the “Double Engine Sarkar,” the same ruling dispensation at both centre and state, to propel the state forward with rapid development, especially in infrastructure. This is only possible because of massive and coordinated investments from the central and state exchequers.
The results are there for everyone to see. Once considered a backward, even “beemaru” (sick) state, UP today is chock-a-block with new airports, impressive bridges and roadways, and swanky government buildings.
Not just big-ticket projects, but toilets, homes, and schools for the underprivileged rural masses have made the real difference. The people are,
Secret support for BJP
Secondly, the law-and-order situation in the state, which has improved dramatically under the no-nonsense disciplinarian administration of Yogi Adityanath. The de facto rule of goons, goondas, dons, and musclemen has practically ended.
The streets of the cities and towns are now more secure than earlier. The crime rates have reduced considerably. The “bad lands” of UP are no longer unsafe, especially for women.
