Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls: The power-centric promises and their perils

The UP exchequer will incur an annual financial burden of more than Rs 12,000 crore if the parties carry through on the power-centric promises they have made, according to energy sector experts.

“It is not financially or technically feasible to fulfil the promises held out by different parties. In fact, people realise these are just election lollipops and even if they were to be fulfilled, the government of the day will divert funds from other heads,” UP power consumer activist Avadhesh Kumar Verma said.

However, the cut and thrust of electioneering in progress outshouts all realistic thinking. The Sahara Shahar township, which nestles in the sleepy suburb of Jankipuram in Lucknow City, came alive on the evening of February 17 with halogen lights and blaring loudspeakers.

The otherwise quiet township played host to a small public meeting by the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the run-up to the February 23 election in the state capital.

“As big political rallies have been banned by the Election Commission, we are holding small public meetings and campaigning door-to-door,” said Deepak Mishra, the Lucknow city vice-president of the BJP, while supervising the party cadre.

Jankipuram is part of the Lucknow North Assembly constituency and represented by Neeraj Bora, who is of the BJP, which has fielded him again from the same seat. A day earlier, Union Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal had also campaigned in Lucknow for the BJP candidates.

Not to be left behind, the principal Opposition Samajwadi Party (SP) is equally enthusiastic about its prospects in the historical city and the nearby constituencies. 

Armaan Khan, the SP nominee for the Lucknow West segment, which has a sizeable population of the minority community, has been holding back-to-back nukkad sabhas (neighbourhood meetings), apart from door-to-door campaigns in the market and residential areas.

Exuding confidence that the SP will come to power in UP, he assures the people that the Akhilesh Yadav-led outfit would resolve all the civic and other problems the people face.

“My aim is to foster communal harmony among the people and to facilitate speedy justice to the common man,” Khan said addressing a public meeting.

Lucknow comprises two parliamentary constituencies, Lucknow and Mohanlalganj, and nine Assembly segments, Lucknow North, Lucknow East, Lucknow West, Lucknow Central, Lucknow Cantonment, Sarojininagar, Bakshi-ka-Talaab, Malihabad, and Mohanlalganj.

Lucknow district has nearly 3.8 million voters in the total population of more than 5.7 million. Since a majority of the city population have received Covid jabs, there is a sense of ease and safety among the political workers and activists while venturing out for canvassing and door-to-door meetings.

Understandably, the flags and bills of different parties can be seen pasted on the gates and boundary walls in the residential areas, while the electricity supply pillars have doubled up as publicity spaces for these outfits.

Not only city avenues, but the rural pockets on the fringes of Lucknow district are ever so reminiscent of the rising election fever gripping Lucknow ahead of polling.

Senior Lucknow Congress leader Mukesh Singh Chauhan, who is among the party’s star campaigners in Uttar Pradesh, has had a hectic life ever since the election calendar was announced by the Election Commission.

He has not only been spearheading the party’s election campaign, especially in his turf of the bustling Indira Nagar area of Lucknow, but accompanying top party leaders to the nearby districts, such as Unnao, as well.

Similarly, the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) has been silently working on its road map, particularly in the suburban constituencies of Mohanlalganj, which has a large population of Dalits.

BSP President Mayawati addressed a rally in Lucknow. She maintained the BSP would spring a surprise on the counting day (March 10) by emerging as the single-largest party to form the next government.

Meera Singh, a resident on the outskirts of Lucknow, said: “The main issues are women’s safety, jobs, and cheaper electricity. The people are not so gullible as to believe the populist election planks.”