Lucknow, March 9 : Has Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) poll plank of development and good governance tilted the balance in the party’s favour or the opposition parties, specially Samajwadi Party’s (SP), card of inflation and unemployment managed to hit the sentiments of the voters — the result will be out on Thursday. Counting of votes for all 403 seats of Uttar Pradesh Vidhan Sabha will start from 8 am. The Election Commission officials said that all preparations have been made in advance, including training of the counting staff. “Elaborate arrangements have been made to ensure peaceful counting at all 403 counting stations set up in the state,” they said. The EC has banned victory procession and the liquor shops will remain closed during counting across the state, Section 144 of CrPC has been promulgated in all the 75 districts to maintain peace and order. In 2017, the BJP with 39.67 per cent votes bagged 312 seats. The SP, which was in power then, got 47 seats, followed by the BSP (19 seats) and Congress (7). While BJP and SP both are claiming absolute majority on March 10, the narrative has changed a bit in the last 24 hours. Now the electronic voting machines (EVMs) have taken the centerstage with allegations and counter allegations flowing from both the sides. While SP president Akhilesh Yadav has expressed apprehension regarding manipulation in the EVMs, BJP leaders claimed that he is giving excuses to explain his defeat in the polls. SP national spokesman Rajendra Chaudhary claimed that his party alone was going to get around 230 to 240 seats. “As far as we expect SP alone is winning 230 to 240 seats and taking allies into account we will reach the 300 mark,” he said. Like Akhilesh, he too expressed apprehension of the ruling BJP trying to influence the results. “BJP intends to manipulate the EVMs with the help of the officials, therefore party president Akhilesh Yadav has asked the workers as well as the voters, who have supported SP, to remain vigilant from their designs. The activities of the officials and the government itself have been suspicious,” he said. BJP too claims it will form the government with more than 300 seats. “Yes we are getting an absolute majority like the previous election when the party alone got 312 seats. As far as allegations of SP are concerned they are baseless and false. It has become the habit of the opposition parties to start blaming the EVMs when they sense their defeat,” said BJP spokesman Hero Bajpai. Whatever be the claims but one thing is clear that since 2007 whichever party had formed the government in UP it had done so with absolute majority. “If we see the results of assembly elections since 2007 there has always been a majority government in the state. Even BJP formed the government after getting 312 seats,” a political analyst said. This election is important for all the key players for different reasons. For BJP it will decide the tone for 2024 Lok Sabha polls and for others including SP and Bahujan Samaj Party it’s a make or break like situation as this election will decide their political future. Besides, the popularity of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who is MP from Varanasi and has campaigned extensively across UP, will be put to test. In fact during the last legs of the campaigning the PM made it look like Modi versus Rest. This election will also test how much the charisma of Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi has worked in the favour of the party. Priyanka had been actively working in UP from the last three years and had been on forefront in launching attacks against the Yogi government on several issues. The prestige of many stalwarts is also at stake with UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and SP chief Akhilesh Yadav sitting on the top. They are contesting election from Gorakhpur Sadar and Karhal seat respectively and both are contesting assembly election for the first time. Among other stalwarts are Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya Siddharth Nath Singh, Mahendra Singh, Surya Pratap Shahi, Brajesh Pathak, Suresh Rana, Shrikant Sharma to name are few will be eager to pass the litmus test. This election will also decide the fate of former ministers in the Yogi government Swami Prasad Maurya, Dara Singh Chauhan and Dharam Singh Saini and many other turncoats, who either quit BJP and joined SP and vice versa. From personal point of view this election is also crucial for senior SP leader and MP Mohammad Azam Khan, who was contesting from Rampur Sadar seat from the jail. His son Abdullah Azam Khan, who got the bail just before nominations, is also contesting from Suar seat in Rampur district. Meanwhile, Additional Director General of Police (Law and Order) Prashant Kumar said that elaborate security arrangements have been made for the counting of votes. There will be a tight vigil by the police particularly in sensitive areas. Kumar said on Wednesday that 250 companies of the Central Armed Police Force will be deployed for counting. Apart from this, 61 company PACs, 625 gazetted police officers, 1,807 inspectors, 9,598 sub-inspectors, 11,627 chief constables and 48,649 constables will be on duty for counting, he added. He said 36 company central forces will be on guard of EVMs and 214 company central forces will be on duty for counting of votes and law and order.
