Keeping up with UP | Roadshows to virtual rallies: The fight for power in UP - Hindustan Times
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Keeping up with UP | Roadshows to virtual rallies: The fight for power in UP

BySunita Aron
Feb 03, 2022 08:43 PM IST

The pandemic has once again brought leaders back to the streets. But their door-to-door campaign is more for optics than for public contact. Yet, people are ecstatic.

The tallest Brahmin leader from Uttar Pradesh (UP), the late Kamlapati Tripathi, loved holding durbars, meeting people and writing letters. The elections too were a different ballgame for someone who contested his first battle of ballots in the pre-Independence era and the last in 1980. Despite rickety cars, bad roads and inaccessible villages, personal contact was the hallmark of every election and the leaders had to knock on the doors of every village, if not home, once in five years.

When Union home minister Amit Shah and the party’s national president JP Nadda hit the road, local leaders commended their spirit. (PTI) PREMIUM
When Union home minister Amit Shah and the party’s national president JP Nadda hit the road, local leaders commended their spirit. (PTI)

Even today, people who remained associated with Tripathi recall how he kept phavras (spades) and tokris (baskets) in the trunk of his car as, very often, the volunteers had to dig the roads for the car to pass. But more often than not, they had to walk to inaccessible villages on dilapidated roads since not all of them were connected by even kuchcha (muddy) roads.

That was what a door-to-door campaign was like until SUVs hit the roads, making campaigning easier in rural areas.

Professor Satish Rai, an old-time associate of Kamlapati Tripathi, says that the campaign created the same fervour that Mahatma Gandhi’s Dandi March did, or for that matter, Ram’s decision to leave for vanvas on foot instead of the rath created. In cities, children loved collecting badges and flags and revved up the poll atmosphere, shouting zesty slogans and songs.

The pandemic has once again brought leaders back to the streets. But their door-to-door campaign is more for optics than for public contact. Yet people are ecstatic.

When Union home minister Amit Shah and the party’s national president JP Nadda hit the road, local leaders commended their spirit. “Not every day, we get to shake hands with the Union home minister or the chief minister of the state. We are loving this change,” said a resident of west UP where BJP leaders have spread out for door-to-door campaigns after the Election Commission imposed a ban on roadshows and rallies.

On the other hand, in the absence of mega shows by their leaders due to the ban on physical rallies and roadshows, the candidates have to rough it out to win their seats. But can they face the electorates when promises have been broken? Many sitting Members of Legislative Assembly (MLAs) are facing public outrage during their door-to-door campaigns.

“It’s impossible to cover the entire rural constituency in the 20-day campaign period — not even half of it can be covered,” said a leader in west UP.

However, in a state where the past three elections have been won by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s popularity, this is the first time that people are getting to know their candidates. In the 2017 assembly elections and the 2019 general elections, the BJP hoardings carried the prime minister’s face, his message and the party’s symbol.

The days of flying candidates are indeed getting over.

It was during the 2017 assembly elections, people in Rae Bareli — the Congress stronghold of national president Sonia Gandhi — expressed their disillusionment with the sitting MLAs saying, “They come in their cars, roll down their windows just to say hi and bye. It’s now time to bid goodbye to them.” Four of the candidates in Rae Bareli had lost their seats.

No doubt, candidates are on tenterhooks.

Old-timers have innumerable stories about campaigning on bullock-carts or by foot. “They not only walked through the lanes and bylanes, but there were many like Shyam Deo Choudhary of the BJP, who never travelled in a four-wheeler. He depended more on a two-wheeler or a tempo to canvass.”

Though both the Samajwadi Party (SP) and the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) have dedicated cadre, they are no match to the BJP’s poll machinery, which has strengthened by borrowing committed Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS) pracharaks from Gujarat and other states. The Congress is also importing leaders from states, but at the local level, they are short of workers. However, for the first time, they have set up booth management committees.

But the BJP’s panna pramukh concept is impressive — a person in charge of a certain number of voters whom they have to cultivate for voting. Generally, there are 60 names of voters on both sides of the page (which the panna pramukh handles) list issued by the Election Commission.

For instance, about 6,025 panna (page) pramukhs (foot soldiers) reached out to their allotted voters in the Allahabad West constituency in January.

Thereafter, the constituency with 453,000 votes was further divided into 87 sectors and 454 booths for the outreach programme.

At the state level, in a group of four, the party workers along with a minister and/or a candidate, will reach every house, including beneficiaries of different schemes, and women, under 1.74 lakh polling booths in 403 constituencies in the state.

The order of the day, however, is virtual rallies — Facebook messaging, tweets, and other platforms. Mobile phones have made messaging easier.

When the prime minister addressed his first virtual rally on January 31, the party organised its telecast in 22 assembly constituencies. Big screens were placed in public places.

Additionally, YouTubers with millions of followers are in demand, with many parties contacting them for their clips. However, rallies and roadshows may have disconnected the public from their leaders, but virtual rallies can disconnect leaders from hard realities.

A strange leap from the bullock-carts to cyberspace.

From her perch in Lucknow, HT’s resident editor Sunita Aron will highlight important issues related to the coming elections in Uttar Pradesh

The views expressed are personal

Unveiling 'Elections 2024: The Big Picture', a fresh segment in HT's talk show 'The Interview with Kumkum Chadha', where leaders across the political spectrum discuss the upcoming general elections. Watch Now!

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