UP polls: After resounding win, a riot of colours at BJP office

Following the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)’s resounding victory in the Uttar Pradesh assembly polls, there was enthusiasm and a riot of colours at the BJP office here on Thursday. It also caused a road jam as the workers danced on Vidhan Bhavan road too.

Amid the deafening tunes of drums with party workers dancing, senior leaders including chief minister Yogi Adityanath, deputy chief ministers Dinesh Sharma and Keshav Prasad Maurya along with BJP minister Brajesh Pathak and state party chief Swatantra Dev arrived at the party office in the evening. They were greeted with “Kesaria Gulal” (orange colour). Party leaders also smeared “gulal” on the faces of one another to celebrate the victory.

Some BJP supporters arrived there on bulldozers. One such man Sanjeev Kumar said, “Yogiji has used the bulldozer for development as well as demolition of the mafia in the state.” Another party workers Sumant Kashyap was donning a plastic miniature bulldozer on his headgear. He said, “ Today, bulldozer is the symbol of development, law and order.”

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Nikhil Chaturvedi a BJP worker from Lucknow Cantonment, distributed sweets while some other burst crackers to express their happiness. Senior leader of Apna Dal (Sonelal), an ally of the BJP, Ashish Patel was brimming with confidence at the party office in Lucknow’s Mall Avenue. Addressing the gathering of party workers after the trends started indicating BJP win, he said, “Good performance is always rewarded by the people, so keep on working hard.” On the contrary, offices of the opposition parties wore a deserted look.

Samajwadi Party: From enthusiasm to dejection

The excitement of the Samajwadi Party (SP) workers was very high in the morning but it waned as soon as counting progressed and the BJP took an unassailable lead. After the trends, results dampened our enthusiasm, said an SP worker.

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Another SP worker Rajesh Yadav from Lucknow Cantonment who arrived at the party office anticipating party’s victory became disheartened after the BJP started gaining by leaps and bounds. Shabaz Talib, an SP worker from Lucknow Central, said, “Our party has gained from the last time (2017) but we need to work hard to return to power.”

Congress office wore a deserted look

None of the senior Congress leaders was seen at the state party headquarters. Party spokesman Mukesh Singh Chauhan was trying to answer questions of the local media while putting up a brave face. “It’s a different thing that the Congress has lost but you cannot ignore the hard work put in by party general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra who took on the BJP head-on,” he said.

Uneasy calm at BSP office

The doors of the BSP office were closed and there were only a handful of people sitting inside and no one was ready to speak to the media. The BSP workers were looking at the election results on TV with a sense of disbelief.