Uttar Pradesh 2017: Samajwadi Party gears up with 2 wins and Amar Singh

NEW DELHI: On Thursday, in a state far removed from the electoral upheavals down India’s east coast, one party blanked out both the BJP and the Congress in state polls - the Samajwadi Party.
Yes, that’s correct. The Samajwadi Party (SP) retained the assembly seats of Bilari in Moradabad and Jangipur in Ghazipur in bypolls held there on May 16, the results of which were declared Thursday.
These two bypolls are considered significant because they are very likely the last ones in Uttar Pradesh before the 2017 Assembly elections there. One of the two contests – in Moradabad – was being seen as a semi-final to Uttar Pradesh 2017.
The SP is already gearing up for the big fight.
The Amar Singh Effect
Earlier this week, SP chief Mulayam Yadav brought back Amar Singh who was expelled from the party six years ago. Not just that, the SP also nominated him ‘unanimously’ to the Rajya Sabha. Yadav likely hopes Amar Singh can attract some of the Thakur vote and more importantly, that he can raise funds for the high profile state poll next year.
It isn’t just the SP that’s going all out. All parties are gearing up for what will be a crucial state election that will be held smack in the middle of the Lok Sabha term that ends in 2019.
That’s why the bypolls of May 16 weren’t treated cavalierly.
A semi-final to Uttar Pradesh 2017
In both constituencies, the SP beat its nearest rivals from the BJP by a significant margin. In both constituencies the Congress actually lost its deposit. And in both constituencies Mayawati’s Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) didn’t participate.
The Bilari bypoll – the one seen as a semi-final in the run-up to next year’s crucial UP elections – saw vigorous campaigning by the SP, the BJP and the Congress. TOI reported that the entire cabinet of Akhilesh Yadav landed up in Bilari at one point to campaign.
What’s also significant about the SP’s Bilari win is that political pundits were predicting the SP would see a stiff fight from the BJP in the Muslim-majority constituency – a fair number were even predicting a BJP victory.
After all, earlier this year, the BJP won in the Muzaffarnagar bypoll, unseating the SP. That was considered a significant gain in the religiously-sensitive constituency. So important did the BJP consider the bypoll, it even sent a central minister there to campaign.
Still, the SP candidate in Bilari won with a margin of 7,063 votes against his nearest rival, a BJP man.
In Monday’s other bypoll in UP, in Jangipur, the SP candidate won with a giant margin of 22,092 votes against her nearest BJP rival.
Whither Congress?
By comparison, the Congress failed miserably. Its candidate in Jangipur got only 6,852 votes and that was lower even than a candidate from a hyper-local party called the Bharatiya Samaj Party.
In Bilari, the performance of the Congress was abysmal. Its candidate got an embarrassing 3,670 votes.
After today’s Assembly polls and along with the two UP bypoll results, it does indeed appear that the Congress is in free fall.
As for the BJP with its nationwide gains today, the only thing it has to fear more than fear itself in UP 2017 is the Samajwadi Party.