Political armies gearing up for the big battle next month will soon become “headless” because almost all state presidents of major political parties are themselves contesting elections.
This is, perhaps, the first time when all state presidents, barring the Samajwadi Party, have decided to enter the electoral arena, leaving their parties without a leader in the crucial election time.
UP Congress president Rita Bahuguna Joshi is contesting the Lucknow Cant. Assembly seat and since she is new to the constituency, she will obviously need to spend maximum time to register her presence among voters. The last time she contested the Lok Sabha elections, she lost because she could not devote enough time for the campaign.
A section of the Congress has already raised a demand for a working president in the state but the party high command is yet to respond to it. It is not yet clear who will take care of party affairs while Ms Joshi is busy with her campaign.
State BJP president Surya Pratap Shahi, on the other hand, is contesting the Patthardeva Assembly and will have to work doubly hard since he had lost the 2007 Assembly polls.
Another senior BJP leader Kalraj Misra, who was expected to oversee the entire UP poll campaign, is also contesting the Lucknow east Assembly seat. Since this is the first election being contested by the veteran leader and his political credibility depends on it, it is obvious that he will concentrate more on his constituency than on the rest of the state. With these two leaders, the BJP army will be completely headless.