Development versus polarisation: The election discourse so far in UP has had two competing undercurrents
By Badri Narayan
The run up to the assembly election 2022 in Uttar Pradesh has evolved into a war of strategies and counter-strategies between various political parties and political groups, for making and managing perceptions. Political parties, the media, social media and the vocal section of the society, all are involved in this war of contouring and disseminating perceptions. This war of perceptions, at times, overshadows the real issues and doesn’t allow them to appear as important in the electoral discourse. The issues of development usually get marginalised, thanks to the loud echoes of caste and religious identity during the campaign stage in the state.
A close and constant observer of the discourse relating to the upcoming assembly polls in Uttar Pradesh over the past few months may realise that it initially centred on the development- performance of the incumbent Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) regime and the critique of the same by opposition parties. The BJP, on the one hand, initiated its campaign by inaugurating various development projects such as Yamuna expressway, Arjun Sahayak Project, etc, and, on the other, the opposition highlighted issues like unemployment, price-rise, suffering of farmers, etc. But, soon enough, caste made its appearance and has dominated the election campaign, pushing back any development-centred debate. The resignation of OBC leaders of the BJP heightened the politics of caste mobilisation in elections 2022. These shifts show that the debates of development are pushed back by a sense of insecurity of identities in our society. So, the election discourse in Uttar Pradesh has moved towards display of the sense of insecurities—of various hues. The by-product of insecurity is that law&order has become a more dominant requirement than development in the election discourse. The BJP, which started its election campaign by raising hopes of development of the state, became compelled to shift the discourse towards addressing the sense of insecurity among the people, again making law & order the dominant electoral issue. On the other hand, opposition parties have moved from raising developmental deficit as the hot button issue to caste polarisation evoking social insecurity. It may prepare the background for another overarching avatar of polarisation politics in the state—religious polarisation. This, too, is also a manifestation of the hidden insecurity in our society, among both the majority and minority communities.
Dharmendra Pradhan, senior BJP leader and the party’s in-charge of UP election tried to bring the poll discourse back to development. He said that we (the BJP) delivered many substantial benefits to the poor social communities; so, we will go into the election with our development agenda for the poor and marginalised.
He wanted to highlight the successful delivery of various social welfare projects launched by the incumbent governments (the Centre and the state) and highlighted how it formed a huge beneficiary community across the caste, gender and religion. The party holds the beneficiary community to be huge, given 42 lakh got houses under the PM housing scheme, 2.54 crores farmers received Kisan Samman Nidhi,15 crore people got free ration. Around 1 crore people received benefits from pension schemes and also many crores received benefits under employment schemes, Ayushman Bharat, etc. If we calculate the total number of beneficiaries covered by the various schemes, it may constitute a large chunk of the population of the state. The discursive effort of Dharmendra Pradhan shows that the BJP wanted to retrieve the development line for the election campaign. Being the party in power, they have certain advantages in the election discourse if it moves along the development line because it may provide opportunities for making certain claims. Sure, any claim invites critique and counter-claims. That is why the Samajwadi Party (SP) led by Akhilesh Yadav, which has emerged as the main contender against the incumbent in this election, is trying to highlight failures of the BJP in various fields. After few days of the efforts by BJP to bring back development as an election issue, Yadav launched a sharp critique of the BJP’s development efforts performances by announcing the SP’s ‘Ann Sankalp’. Through it, he tried to rake up the BJP’s stand on the farm Bills and the farmers’ protest. He also promised various benefits to farmers if his party came to power. The Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), expected to make this election triangular in many constituencies, is trying to evolve its election campaign around the trust Mayawati gained as a four-time chief minister. The BSP has promised to work on the line it took before, for the bahujan and sarvjan of Utttar Pradesh. The Congress, under the leadership of Priyanka Gandhi with a lot of commitment of benefits to the people of the state, has focused its campaign on the promise of resolving various social and developmental inequalities persisting in the state.
The BJP, by providing sufficient representation to the OBCs and Dalits in its ticket distribution, has tried hard to dilute any possibility of caste polarisation that could go against it in this election. The development agenda may also help weaken aggressive polarisation against it. In a nutshell, I would like to say that the coming UP assembly election has emerged as an interesting text of clever strategies, creative planning and politics of promises displayed by political forces against each other.
The author is Director, GB Pant Social Science Institute