Uttar Pradesh (UP) literally means northern state and population wise is the largest state in India and area wise it is the fourth largest state after Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra. UP accounts for 8-10 percent of India’s GDP. If UP become an independent country, it will be one of the largest democracies in the world after, the USA and Indonesia. With around 220 million people, UP is smaller than Indonesia that boasts over 250 million people but looking at the faltering democratic traditions in Indonesia, UP stands out as much as a better democracy.
If we deeply look into the political
history of UP, we find that after independence in 1947, for 2 decades, the
Indian National Congress (INC) ruled on its own. The longest serving CM was
Govind Ballabh pant who remained CM from 1946 to 1954.Then another INC
politician Sampurnanand , who occupied the post for 6 years until 1960;followed
by Chandra Bhanu Gupta and Sucheta Kriplani for3 years each.
Finally, in 1967 a former leader of
the INC, Charan singh deprived the congress of its hold in UP to become the
first non–congress CM of UP, Charan Singh became a bitter critic of both JL
Nehru and his daughter Indira Gandhi, but could maintain his rule in UP for 2
years only, from 1970 to 1977 Congress somehow managed to regain and retain
power in UP but in 1977 Janata Party formed its government in UP but lost to
again to congress just after 3 years in 1980.
From 1980 to 1989 for almost a
decade the Congress Party once again regained the power, following which the
Mulayam Singh Yadav (MSY) took hold of UP for the first time which lasted only
for 18 months. Then the BJP’s Kalyan Singh was elected the CM who was dismissed
when he failed to restrain the Singh Parivar (the RSS and its coteries) from
destroying the Babri Mosque in December 1992, then MSY remained in power for
another 18 months, followed by BSP’s Mayawati just for 4 months.
For the next 10 years BJP and BSP
alternatively held power to be succeeded by Mulayam Singh once again in 2003,
this time he remained the CM for 4 years till 2007.in 2012 MSY again formed the
government but selected his son Akhilesh to be the CM who remained the master
of UP until 2017. In 2017 elections BJP won the UP elections and formed the
government and Yogi Adityanath was made CM.In UP the congress had not been able
to form the government since 1989 and if we look into the political arena of
the UP for last 31 years ,slightly better is the BJP who had formed the government
two times. Another important player has been the BSP formed by Kanshi Ram but
later led by Mayawati. The BSP claimed to represent the lower casts and tribes.In
addition the BSP has also attracted the votes from religious minorities.After
the death of Kanshi ram Mayawati became the supreme leader of BSP and until now
has been the CM for four tenures. The INC has been losing the game
consecutively despite Rahul’s Gandhi efforts to revive the party in UP. Now we
all can do is just wait for the next UP elections.
The million-dollar question is, Will
the INC regain its legacy or not????
