By Vivek Tripathi
Lucknow, May 6 (IANS): After the completion of the first phase of the Uttar Pradesh local body polls, the election campaign for the second phase has gathered pace. The ruling party BJP has put its full force in the campaign, whereas, the leaders of the opposition parties -- Samajwadi Party (SP) and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) -- are giving it a miss to focus on the Karnataka Assembly elections.
According to political experts, BSP chief Mayawati and SP chief Akhilesh Yadav, two big faces of the state's politics, are on Karnataka tour amid civic elections.
Akhilesh Yadav will address five rallies during his three-day tour. Mayawati has taken the feedback of the election by meeting with the party senior leaders along with addressing a rally.
The BSP is also contesting alone in Karnataka as part of its policy of not forging alliances with any opposition party anywhere in the country except in Punjab.
In the 2018 Assembly elections in Karnataka, a BSP candidate had won, while the Samajwadi Party's account was not opened. SP had fielded its candidates on 20 seats, but the party had to face defeat on all the seats. At the same time, BSP fielded its candidates on 18 seats with the JDS alliance.
While civic elections are going on in Uttar Pradesh, questions are being raised on the seriousness of both the parties as both have no mass base in Karnataka.
BSP chief Mayawati has not organised a single meeting for her party in the civic elections. BSP has fielded its candidates in all the districts. Even then Mayawati has not campaigned for Uttar Pradesh local polls.
SP chief Akhilesh Yadav has also not been seen to be very active in Uttar Pradesh. He did go to Gorakhpur, Deoria, Santakbir Nagar, Saharanpur for campaigning.
Whereas, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has put all his might in the civic elections in the state.
Yogi conducted three public meetings. Apart from this, both his Deputy Chief Ministers, Keshav Maurya and Brajesh Pathak, were also seen campaigning. State president Bhupendra Chaudhary is also meeting with the workers along with the public meeting.
According to politicians, there is a huge demand for Yogi from the BJP candidates in the Karnataka Assembly elections, but still he is giving more preference to UP.
The SP has fielded more than a dozen candidates in the Karnataka Assembly elections.
The SP president is reaching here to hold a public meeting. Akhilesh Yadav has also studied engineering from Karnataka. In such a situation, he has often been showing his attachment to Karnataka.
SP's national spokesperson Ashutosh Verma said: "SP is fighting the civic elections very seriously. Our national president has toured some districts in the first phase of civic elections. Apart from this, national general secretaries, Shivpal Yadav, Ramgopal and state president Naresh Uttam Patel, have taken command of the campaign."
"Whereas in Karnataka elections, our party candidates are fighting the elections with a good competitive zeal. That's why on their demand the national president has made his visit."
Political analyst Ratan Mani Lal said: "Victory or defeat of regional parties in civic elections does not make any difference in their political strategy. SP and BSP do not give the same importance to body elections as the BJP does. That's why BJP also gets the benefit of this."
"SP and BSP do not take this election very seriously. Because they feel that working very hard in this election doesn't help much. While BJP takes every election as a challenge, whether it is a gain or a loss."
Political analyst Virendra Rawat said that all the regional parties have Lok Sabha elections in focus. They don't take civic elections seriously. These parties do not waste much energy in these elections. Apart from this, they would also be looking at the possibility of alliances.