The Vote bank politics is not a new thing for any democracy. It is one of the tried methods of contesting political parties to attract voters on religion, caste, ideology, regionalism and other such considerations. In the first quarter of electoral history of India, this trend was not more pronounced though the ruling Congress silently played the Brahmin, Muslim and Dalit cards. Particularly in post-Emergency elections, the Congress game was exposed and new permutations started surfacing. The people with more exposure and education, started making their own pressure groups, which is a common phenomenon in democratic countries to get their demands fulfilled. It will be quite interesting to see the changing colours of vote bank politics over the years in India.
The first such campaign with a boom was launched by Mrs Indira Gandhi after the split in the Congress. She nationalized major banks, directed them to extend loans to the poor, stopped the privy purses of the erstwhile princes, and gave a catchy slogan of ‘garibi hatao’ to raise new optimism in the lower strata of the society. Accordingly, the then Cong(i) swept the polls. But when the high sounding slogan of ‘garibi hatao’ proved hollow, this vote bank politics petered out so much that ultimately she, under compulsion had to impose Emergency.
It was later observed that in several states as well caste combinations started being tried to grab power. Dr Jagannath Mishra thought that being the unopposed Brahmin leader, no opposition party would be able to weaken him if he befriended Muslims and win over the teaching community. He made Urdu second official language and recognized minority teaching institutions. Then despite Bihar’s poor coffer position, Dr Mishra gave UGC scale to the college teachers. In spite of these alluring offers, he went on losing support so much so that today he cannot win himself from any constituency. So he went on joining other political parties. Then came the Lalu regime, totally formed on caste lines. He gave a call for MY(Muslim-Yadav). The theory utterly failed and Lalu who ruled with his wife for 15 years, was thrown to third position in Bihar. Similarly, in UP, Ms Mayawati evolved a vote bank theory of bringing Brahmins and Dalits together. It brought him majority but could not fetch her srcond term.
In the meantime, on a large scale, a well calculated vote bank formula was evolved by B.P. Singh. He foresaw that if he could unite the OBCs, he could not be defeated in any condition. It created such an uproar all over the country that the chances of the Congress return to power became easier. Here we cannot forget the Rath Yatra of L.K. Advani on Ram Mandir issue which gave victory to the BJP in UP and later on national level as well. However, like other vote bank formulae, this also failed to ensure the return of the party to power for the second time.
Today we see some new turns in this regard. The BJP has decided to project Narendra Modi to encash his image of ‘vikas purus’. However, the other political parties, referring to the Gujarat riots of 2002 are charging him as a communalist. These parties realize that criticizing Modi was the safest method of appeasing the minorities. This idea has created problems for the NDA Govt in Bihar. The JDU’s vote bank line is to attract Muslims to regain power. Nitish Kumar does not realize that on way to win Muslim votes, he may lose huge upper castes votes. Probably, in a couple of days, JDU may desert the coalition which will be a misfortune for the state which suffered a lot under long years of misgovernance of the previous dispensation.
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