Lucknow, May 30
(Sunita Aron)

THE CROWN may have gone to the ousted Chief Minister, Kalyan Singh, but it is certainly Bahujan Samaj Party's turn also to bask in the post-poll glory, even though it lost the Soron Assembly seat by a slender margin to the fledgling Rashtriya Kranti Party.

Jubilation in the Kalyan Singh camp are understandable. Not only the Soron victory brings him back to the centrestage in the State's politics, but also helps him to avenge his 'humiliation' by the BJP. The defeat of the BJP is bound to accentuate infighting in the ruling party besides forcing a rethink among the allies.

The reports are that the coalition partners, aware of the declining popularity graph of the BJP are already having electoral talks with other political parties for the next Assembly elections. The general perception is that parties like Loktantrik Congress and Jantantrik Bahujan Samaj Party would discard BJP once out of power as both have desperately tried to maintain a political identity distinct from that of the BJP.

In fact the BSP's splendid performance in the Soron Assembly constituency of Etah district has even taken the political pundits by surprise even though the BSP leaders here insist that the results had come on the unexpected lines. "From day one we were sure of winning the seat, but it went to Kalyan Singh, though with a slender margin," claimed BSP leaders while pointing out the party's growing vote base in the Yadav-Lodh dominated areas. "Our performance in the Kannauj by-election was equally good. Despite the tacit understanding between the Samajwadi Party and the BJP supported Loktantrik Congress, we had ended second in the fray," said another leader of the BSP.

Observers believe that the BSP's meteoric rise in this Mulayam belt manifest two major changes in its political scene - first, docile Dalits are aggressive enough to face the martial caste group like that of Yadavs and Lodhs and, second, the twists and turns in the State politics has least affected Mayawati's popularity among her voters.