Electorate stuns smaller outfits in UP polls

Lucknow, May 12 (UNI) The over 11 crore-strong Uttar Pradesh electorate has rejected smaller outfits in the just-concluded assembly elections.

The electorate, instead, preferred to give Mayawati's Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) an ''unexpected'' absolute majority. With this, the era of smaller parties and coalition politics has ended -- at least for the time being.

From the onset of polls, the fate of smaller parties and Independents had hung in balance as poll predications had indicateed their unsuccessful run this time.

In the outgoing 14th assembly, smaller parties ruled the roost and had their say in the government formation, but the new assembly to be constituted by May 14 will have a different scenario.

In the 2002 polls, 16 Independents, along with over 29 candidates of smaller parties had won seats.

Smaller parties like Apna Dal, the JD(U), Rashtriya Lok Dal, Janmorcha, Lok Janshakti Party, the CPI, the CPI(M), the CPI(ML) and the United Democratic Front(UDF) failed to snatch important seats from the main political parties.

While Apna Dal and the JD(U) had tied with the BJP, the Janmorcha, the CPI, the UDF and the CPI(ML) had made a pre-poll alliance after their talks with the Congress failed.

A new combination of Indian Justice Party (IJP) with the newly- floated Samajwadi Kranti Dal (SKD) of rebel SP MP Beni Prasad Verma, too, failed to give anxious moments to the ruling Samajwadi Party, which emerged as the second largest political party in the assembly.

While Beni Prasad Verma lost from Ayodhya, his minister son Rakesh was defeated from two constituencies.

In the just-concluded assembly polls, the number of total candidates was 6070, whereas the number was 5,533 in the 2002 polls.

Out of the total 2572 Independents in the fray, only nine could make it to the assembly.

In the last assembly polls, the RLD was the main gainer in the smaller parties section, with a poll percentage of 2.49 and winning 14 seats. Apna Dal won three seats by achieving 2.17 per cent of votes while other smaller parties achieved less than one per cent of the votes polled.

The Independents also achieved around 4 per cent of votes polled in the 2002 polls.

The Left Front -- the CPI(M), the CPI, the Forward Bloc and the RSP -- drew a blank when all its 46 candidates were defeated.

Two little known outfits -- Lok Parivartan Party and Bharat Punarnirman Dal -- which made news since they were formed by students from IIT-Kanpur could not impress voters when they drew a blank. They together had fielded 10 candidates.

Of the 27 winners in the others and independents groups, Ajit Aingh's RLD accounted for 10 seats . Rashtriya Parivartan Dal(RPD) won two seats while Bhartiya Janshakti, Jan Morcha and UPUDF won one each.

The UPUDF had some consolation when Haji Yaqoob Qureshi, who made news for seeking the Danish cartoonist's head, won from Meerut.

The RPD, which won two seats, was founded by the mafia-turned- politician D P Yadav, the father of the Nitish Katara murder case prime accused Vikas Yadav.

The Apna Dal, an ally of the BJP, was trounced as it failed to secure even a single seat after contesting from 40 constituencies.

Apna Dal president Sonelal Patel, a Kurmi leader, lost from the two constituencies. The party had won three seats last time.

UNI