Mulayam Singh Yadav's unique, conversational speeches remain the most effective "campaign material" of the Samajwadi Party.
Samajwadi Party (S.P.) activists describe this round of Assembly elections as the most crucial electoral battle for `Netaji' and the party. In their perception, a commendable performance, which means at least emerging as the single largest party in the Assembly, can propel `Netaji' Mulayam Singh Yadav to the leadership of a potential Third Front, which may well capture power at the national level in the next Lok Sabha elections. At the regional level, it will be a categorical assertion that the party is consolidating its electoral base. It will also mean public endorsement of a ruling party in the State after a gap of more than two decades. The last time this happened was in 1985 when the Congress, led by Bir Bahadur Singh, was returned to power.
That it was going to be a crucial battle was the premise on which the leadership initiated steps to evolve the campaign strategy and plans. At the end of the exercise, it was apparently decided that the campaign had to have a "high-profile nature" given the national dimensions of the electoral battle. The result was a series of eye-catching advertisements in the print and electronic media, where film star Amitabh Bachchan was also used to advance the party's cause. This type of media splash was, indeed, a departure from the S.P.'s traditional campaign style, which centred round the public meetings of its leaders including Mulayam Singh Yadav, its street theatre groups, and door-to-door canvassing by party activists.
Thematically, the focus of the campaign was on "the achievements of the Mulayam Singh Yadav government in its three-and-a-half-year tenure". The government's initiatives, such as the debt relief given to farmers, the streamlining of sugarcane procurement, the strengthening of the old-age pension scheme, and the implementation of the Kanya Vidhya Dhan Yojana (educational grant for young women who have passed 12th standard), the unemployment wages scheme and the much-credited fiscal management, were all part of the identified themes.
The general consensus was that the government's most vulnerable point was its track record on law and order, and the S.P. decided that the best way to tackle it was to go on the offensive. It used Amitabh Bachchan in television advertisements to argue that Uttar Pradesh had a lower crime rate than other States.
This new, media-oriented campaign evoked mixed reactions within the S.P. right from the early stages of electioneering. A section of party activists was reportedly of the view that the media-oriented campaign was not only ineffective but counter-productive. There were even comparisons to the much-ridiculed "India Shining" campaign of the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) in the 2004 Lok Sabha elections. The approbation-overdrive of "India Shining" was ultimately evaluated as one of the factors that aggravated public anger against the then NDA government. In the background of such assessments, the S.P. decided to give equal importance to its traditional forms of campaigning too.
Whatever the ultimate impact of this mix and match, there is little doubt that Mulayam Singh Yadav holds the key to the S.P.'s campaign. By any yardstick, the S.P. chief is the most tenacious campaigner among senior leaders of all parties on the campaign trail. The 68-year-old former wrestler puts in 12 to 14 hours a day in campaigning. Hopping across the State in a helicopter, he addresses an average of eight public meetings a day, apart from three or four workers' meetings. Those who have worked with him or have had occasion to observe him at close quarters aver that the Chief Minister never shows any sign of being under stress or pressure in spite of the punishing schedule he sets for himself.
Mulayam Singh Yadav has perfected a personal style of public speaking through the five decades of his involvement with political activity. It is bereft of demagogy and is essentially conversational in character. He asks the audience questions, evokes responses, sometimes even generates an argument, but ultimately gets them to affirm his point of view and explicitly support his party.
Watching Mulayam Singh Yadav at a campaign rally at Tilhar in Shajahanpur district, Satya Narayan Yadav, a senior S.P. activist of the area, said the paradigm of electioneering and the issues that are raised may change from time to time but the "soft and unique" campaigning style of Mulayam Singh Yadav has not changed at all.
Given his commitment of eight public meetings and half as many workers meetings, the S.P. chief's speeches are relatively short. There are no long-winding introductions and the leader comes to the point directly. It was the same at Tilhar too. "The Congress leadership is now crying itself hoarse that the communal BJP is once again raising its head. I had told them [the Congress leadership] as far back as three years ago that this would happen if they, as the leader of the ruling coalition at the Centre, did not make careful and concerted moves to counter the threat. They did not listen and, in keeping with the consistent, historical streak of authoritarianism in the Congress, the party leadership was more interested in toppling my government. They could not succeed in that too."
Having thus highlighted the failure and the authoritarianism of the Congress, it is time to inspire the cadre. "Now, once again it has become the responsibility of the S.P. to stop the Hindutva communalists from advancing their nefarious plans. Remember, the whole country is banking on us. As important a leader as Prakash Karat of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) reiterated recently that only the S.P. has been capable of stopping the BJP. It is indeed an appreciation of a fact, but that appreciation comes with the hope that we will once again stop the march of the communalists. Karat's appreciation bestows a great responsibility on us." There is a pause and then Mulayam Singh Yadav asks the crowd of 20,000-odd people, "Are you ready to take this big responsibility?" The crowd, almost to a man, springs up with affirmative slogans.
Having made the point about fighting the BJP, the S.P. chief goes on to talk about what needs to be done about the "communal BJP" and the "authoritarian Congress" in the medium and long terms. "Only a Third Front alternative can help the country get rid of these short-sighted politicians who are hell bent on promoting their self-interest at the cost of the nation. And it is getting formed, slowly but steadily. The Telugu Desam Party (TDP), the Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) and the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) are coming together with the S.P. on a common platform to fight the BJP and the Congress. Talks are on with the Left parties and soon they will also join in, forming a huge coalition of people's power to do good to the people at the national level."
Mulayam Singh Yadav asserts that the elections in Uttar Pradesh are also crucial for "doing good to people at the national level with the Third Front". "The S.P. has to win here to take this cause forward as also to protect the good work we have done here in the past three and a half years," he says.
He lists the achievements of his government, such as the waiver of agricultural debt, the streamlining of sugarcane procurement, the old-age pension scheme, the Kanya Vidhya Dhan Yojana, the unemployment dole and the fiscal management. The Chief Minister promises to enhance allocations for all these programmes if returned to power and then asks the people to compare his government's performance with the Central government's.
"What is there in the Central Budget? They promised Muslim minorities the world when the Rajinder Sachar Committee Report was presented, but have you seen the pittance they have allocated for minority welfare programmes in the Budget? What is there in the Budget for the agricultural sector, poor farmers and agricultural labourers?" he asks, and says: "The kind of indifference shown by the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government makes it incapable of protecting the poor and the needy or resisting communalism." The speech concludes with reiterations that only the S.P. can stop the communal forces led by the BJP.
The reactions in and around Tilhar make it clear that Mulayam Singh Yadav has succeeded in driving home the point. A large number of S.P. cadre in different parts of the State aver that whatever be the modern techniques of propaganda, Mulayam Singh Yadav remains the best instrument of communication for the party.
Sections of the party are apprehensive that the adoption of modern, unfamiliar techniques, even partially, could have a negative influence on the overall impact of the campaign. The completion of the election process will determine whether these fears are realistic or not.
