Lucknow, June 9: It will be for the first time in the history of the Legislative Council of the most populous state of country Uttar Pradesh, when there will be no member of the Congress party in the upper house.
Congress, which is continuously declining on the political spectrum in the state, has only one member in the 100 member Legislative Council and lone party MLC Deepak Singh is set to retire on July 6.
In the 72-year-old history of the UP Legislature the strength of the Congress in both the houses has reached its lowest level this time. In recently concluded Assembly elections only two candidates of Congress managed to reach the lower house.
On the basis of two members in the assembly it is impossible for Congress to ensure victory of its candidate in the biennial election of the council being held for 13 seats. Considering the total strength of the assembly having 403 members, support of at least 32 MLAs is needed to win one seat.
In fact Congress is getting marginalised in both the houses after every election. In 2012 assembly polls while 28 Congress candidates were elected to the lower house, this number was reduced to 7 in 2017. Congress was tagged as ‘zero party’ after 2017 polls and now it has been reduced to only two members in the lower house.
Terming it as a tragic situation for Congress, senior party leader and former minister Satyadeo Tripathi squarely blamed the top leadership for this situation. “To become an MLC, support of at least 33 MLAs is needed. It’s clear that we won’t have any members in the upper house. This had never happened before. Senior leadership of the party is responsible for the poor state of Congress not only in the state legislature, but the entire UP,” he said.
Senior Congress leader and former Rajya Sabha member PL Punia, however, expressed confidence that soon the situation will change and Congress will bounce back. “The truth of reaching 28 to 2 in the last three elections cannot be denied, but now after Kanpur violence and other cases people are coming to know the reality of Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) talisman,” he said.
He said that the confusion prevailing in the minds of the people regarding BJP has been shattered and at the same time people are looking towards Congress with hope. “BJP too reached the top from two seats, similarly Congress will make a comeback from two seats,” he said.
Citing the example of Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), which has managed to win only one seat this time, he said that the future of regional parties is momentary. “In such a situation, now people are considering Congress as an alternative at the national level,” he said.
Rejecting the arguments of Punia, political analyst Rajiv Shrivastava blamed Congress’ experimentalism in politics for the party’s misfortune. “Congress had been experimenting a lot since 1989. Unfortunately the ‘cosmetic politics’ of the party failed every time. All experiments like adding glamour quotient by appointing Raj Babbar as the state president to Nirmal Khatri and giving the reins in the hands of Ajay Kumar Lallu, who looks like a common man, failed,” he said.
He said that in more than three decades of experimental politics the party got divided in several camps not only at the national level, but at the state level. “Despite this, Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi and now Priyanka Gandhi could not rid Congress from groupism, as a result today the state legislature itself has started becoming ‘Congress-free’.
The story of Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) is not very different from Congress. BSP which formed the majority government in 2007 with 206 members has witnessed a gradual fall after every assembly polls. In 2012 it was reduced to 80 members then to 19 MLAs in 2017 and now it has only one member in the lower house.
Like Congress three BSP MLCs, including Dinesh Chandra, Attar Singh Rao and Suresh Kumar Kashyap will retire on July 6. After this BSP will be left with only one member Bhimrao Ambedkar in the upper house.
It may be noted that polling for 13 seats of the council is scheduled to be held on June 20.
At present the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has a strength of 66 members in the upper house. After the result of 13 seats is announced it’s strength will increase to 73 and two of its members are retiring on July 6. On the other hand five members of Samajwadi Party (SP), which has 11 MLCs, too are retiring on July 6. When four of its candidates will be elected to the upper house its total member strength will reach 10.
With UNI Input
