There is something about elections in Uttar Pradesh — they give birth to new political parties at an alarming rate.
Political parties mushroom on the eve of elections and then disappear after the polls are over. While they are in the fray, they serve to confuse voters, give anxiety attacks to major political parties and even make big bucks.
Interestingly, majority of these parties have no offices and operate out of private residences or even cyber cafes from where they send out press releases. The leaders change every two months and they have no election manifesto or agenda as such.
Some of these political have weird names like the Humlog Morcha that reminds one more of the soap opera of the same name.
The Humlog Morcha is an umbrella organisation of smaller outfits and its convenor is former judicial officer C.B. Pandey, who incidentally has his own political party called Naitik Party.
Majority of the political parties that mushroom during elections make sure that their name or acronym is the same as that of establish political outfits.
The Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) has the maximum number of clones with the Bhartiya Samaj Party (also BSP) having caused maximum damage to the original by confusing voters in the 2012 Assembly elections.
Other parties basking in reflected glory include Jantantrik Bahujan Samaj Party, Loktantrik Bahujan Samaj Party, Bahujan Ekta Party and Kisan Mazdoor Bahujan Party.
In the Samajwadi category, there is the Samajwadi Kranti Dal, Samajwadi Janata Party, Samajwadi Congress, Rashtriya Samajwadi Party and Samajwadi Dal.
The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) too has a clone that goes by the name of Akhil Aam Aadmi Party (AAAP) while the BJP will have to counter Bhartiya Janjagran Party — also BJP.
Uttar Pradesh also has parties that are region-specific and community-specific.
There is the Bundelkhand Mukti Morcha and the Bundelkhand Vikas Dal which cater to the Bundelkhand sentiments while the Harit Pradesh Party is already in existence even though there seem to be no takers for the Harit Pradesh state.
Then there are parties that focus on one community like the Peace Party that focuses on Muslims. Others in the race are All-India Muslim Majlis, Parcham Party and Ittehad-e-Millat while the Apna Dal has a Kurmi base and the Mahan Dal concentrates on Shakya votes. There is even a Savarn Samaj Party for upper castes and a Samaan Adhikar Party for everyone.
An Election Commission official in Lucknow said that there were over 250 such smaller political outfits that would be contesting the 2017 Assembly elections. “The candidates of these parties are treated technically as independents but they do create confusion during the campaign by having similar acronyms,” he said.
Vivek Tiwari of Bhartiya Janjagran Party (BJP) admits that smaller political outfits are formed for short-term gains. “We were in the BJP but never managed to get a chance to move ahead so we formed out own party.”
At least, all of us can now contest elections and test the waters,” he said. Besides, these outfits also manage to earn money though aggressive fund collection drive during elections. “We even manage to get money from the candidates of bigger political parties if they feel that we are damaging their votes,” admitted one such party member.
