Who will win UP polls, why: This book can help you figure it out

Veteran journalist Abhigyan Prakash’s ‘From Lucknow to Lutyens’ tells a fascinating story of India’s political bellwether state

GN Bureau | March 7, 2022


#journalism   #politics   #Uttar Pradesh   #elections  
A scene from one of home minister Amit Shah`s election rallies in Uttar Pradesh (Photo courtesy: bjp.org)
A scene from one of home minister Amit Shah`s election rallies in Uttar Pradesh (Photo courtesy: bjp.org)

From Lucknow to Lutyens: The Power and Plight of Uttar Pradesh
By Abhigyan Prakash
HarperCollins, 272 pages, Rs 599

With the final phase of voting on Monday, UP elections conclude and with it – in the parlance of journalism – the most important event since 2019 and before 2024. Actually, every assembly election in Uttar Pradesh is considered the most important political event between two Lok Sabha elections.

A disproportionate number of India’s prime minister have come from that state, though the influence it wields on national political discourse is certainly not disproportionate to the number of MPs it sends to the Lok Sabha.  In any case, with a population that would make it the fifth most populated in the world if it were a country, UP elections should seen as an event of global importance.

But deciphering the undercurrents, who is winning where why, is a complicated exercise. It might be somewhat obvious for the people of the state, who must have been tirelessly discussing the fate of this or that party for months now. It is not obvious for outsiders. Understanding UP could be very much rocket science. There are castes and communities and their implicit party preferences. The numbers might be static but their political leanings can never be the same – otherwise every poll would throw up broadly the same results.

And caste cannot be the sole factor. There are roti-kapada-makan issues, not to mention the BSP – bijli, sadak, pani. This time, law and order is as much an issue as the role of religion in public sphere. The public health infrastructure might be point on the mind of the voter, amid the pandemic.  
 
More importantly, an issue cannot be seen in the present light alone; there is always a back story. Abhigyan Prakash, a veteran TV journalist, in his ‘From Lucknow to Lutyens’ narrates that overarching back story of the state. His question is less related to the immediateness of elections, and more to the long-term conundrum: How come a state with so much political heft has consistently failed, right since independence, to achieve its potential in economic and developmental terms?

Still, when we all sit before the TV sets and computer screens on March 10, this book could be a very helpful resource in making sense of it all.

Comments

 

Other News

Targeting root causes of cancer with green policies

The Budget 2025 was splashed across headlines with its innumerable numbers and policies, but lurking behind the balance sheets is a threat that it has not accounted for yet — the silent, merciless clutches of cancer. The World Health Organisation (WHO) states that it remains one of humanity`s mo

Congress needs course correction: Prithviraj Chavan

Prithviraj Chavan, a former Maharashtra chief minister and veteran Congress leader, feels his party has probably failed to provide a viable alternative to the government, and it needs a course correction. “I do acknowledge that the Congress party may have failed to provide the alternat

Major haul of illegal arms and ammunition in Manipur

In a significant breakthrough, Manipur Police, in a joint operation with Central Armed Police Forces (CAPFs), the Indian Army, and Assam Rifles, recovered a massive cache of illegal arms, ammunition, and explosives during coordinated search operations across five valley districts in the intervening night o

PM visits crash site, meets the injured

Prime minister Narendra Modi on Friday visited the Air India flight crash site in Ahmedabad to assess the situation first-hand. He met officials and emergency response teams working tirelessly in the aftermath of the disaster. He also condoled the loss of numerous lives in the tragic air accident. He con

Air India flight crashes in Ahmedabad

The Air India flight to London crashed in Ahmedabad within munites of the take-off Thursday afternoon. There were 232 passengers and 10 crew members aboard, and reports suggest there was slim chances of anyone surviving. The Boeing 787 Dreamliner crashed and exploded in a fireball barely out

Cabinet approves two multitracking projects of Railways

The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs, chaired by prime minister Narendra Modi, on Wednesday approved two projects of the railways ministry with a total cost of Rs. 6,405 crore. These projects include:  1. Koderma – Barkakana Doubling (133 Kms): The project sec

Visionary Talk: Amitabh Gupta, Pune Police Commissioner with Kailashnath Adhikari, MD, Governance Now





Archives

Current Issue

Opinion

Facebook Twitter Google Plus Linkedin Subscribe Newsletter

Twitter