January 22, 2025

When a bowler is hit for a boundary and then delivers a good ball that foxes the batsman, it is called a good comeback. The BJP made a comeback in the Rajya Sabha elections after being made to bite the dust by the SP-BSP arrangement in Phulpur and Gorakhpur Lok Sabha by-polls. It managed to wrest an additional seat in UP by preventing it from going to the BSP. In doing so, it took the wind out of the sails of the much publicized quid pro quo where the BSP supported the SP candidates in the two LS by-polls with an undertaking that the SP would help in getting its candidate elected to the RS. But the irony is that since there was cross voting from its own legislators (with one even declaring his ‘love’ for Yogi Adityanath), the BSP cannot accuse the SP of betrayal. One cannot predict what Mayawati will do next, smarting as she by being beaten at the game by a manipulative BJP.

While Amit Shah and Yogi Adityanath might now breathe easy after the dual shocks of Phulpur and Gorakhpur, this successful turn of event must also remind them the fact that while it is easy to manipulate legislators it is not so easy to manipulate voters. Winning a RS seat can in no way compensate for the loss of LS seats. But the tactical mind of Amit Shah must have worked with another interest in mind. His main purpose now is to sow some kind of distrust between the SP and the BSP to prevent them from repeating their recent electoral understanding. What better way to do it than to scuttle the expected fruits of that understanding? By ensuring that the BSP candidate lost, Shah has managed to point it out to Mayawati that her support to SP amounted to nothing in return. Mayawati might now do fresh calculations before cementing the tie-up. If that happens, Shah would have bowled an unplayable yorker.