ALIGARH: Even while the Utter Pradesh Assembly elections are seen as the semi-final for the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, there appears no fever-pitched campaigning on the ground as is the usual case in the Hindi heartland in the past. The long drawn out family battle in the Mulayam Singh Yadav clan for political supremacy along with strict norms imposed by the Election Commission appear to have dried the colour of electioneering, besides silencing the blaring noise in the first phase of polling for 73 constituencies scheduled for February 11.
"It's hard to believe that we have to vote for a candidate in another 10 days. No candidate has come to my locality yet for any campaigning. The festivity associated with elections is hardly visible. I have been a traditional Congress voter, but I don't yet know if there is any candidate from my favourite party for the Aligarh (town) seat," said Noor Bano, a shopkeeper outside a city mosque.
The walls boast of commercial advertisements with no evidence of any posters of any candidates of political parties. The roads are neither littered with pamphlets of candidates. There are hardly any vans blaring out the slogans of any political parties in any of the districts heading for the first phase of elections. Even the hoardings hardly belong to any political outfits.
"The Election Commission has come out with strict norms for pasting of posters on walls and putting up hoardings, besides taking out the vans for canvassing. Each candidate has to apply at the administration for such activities. But it has been seen that the district electoral officials are close-fisted in giving approvals," said Dilip Yadav, a political observer in Mathura, who added that demonetisation has also rendered the political parties and candidates cashless, which in turn is affecting the campaigns.
Incidentally, the hoardings of the district electoral officials exhorting the voters to exercise their respective franchise are common place. Even the vans of the Election Commission with names printed of senior officials are regularly seen in the poll-bound areas.
With the family feud in the Samajwadi Party coming to an end recently and the party announcing names of candidates relatively later, the usual din and bustle have taken a back seat. “We are closely following media reports to keep a tab on elections. If not for the media, we may not even know the names of candidates," said Sayed Kaleem of Kabir Colony in Aligarh.