‘Winnable’ peace party going to pieces?

Nine months, four alliances and scores of accusations. The much-publicised Peace Party in Uttar Pradesh is apparently going to pieces even before the elections begin.
The party that claimed to change the direction of state politics in 2011 is now looking for a direction for itself in the state.

The Peace Party had ranked number two in by-elections in Dumariaganj and Lakhimpur in 2011, forcing all political parties to take note of it. The media hailed the party as the next best thing to have happened in Uttar Pradesh and its president Dr Ayub was hailed as the new political marker on the map.
Apparently, blinded by the praise and euphoria, the Peace Party leadership began making mistakes with a vengeance.
The party inducted heavyweight criminals like Akhilesh Singh (MLA from Rae Bareli) and Jitendra Singh Babloo (MLA from Faizabad) and succumbed to the lure of “winnable” candidates. In the process, it lost its USP of being a “clean” party.
To add to the confusion, the Peace Party also inducted former bureaucrats including former DGP Yashpal Singh, former IPS Rama Shankar Singh and former IAS S.P. Arya on board, turning it into a coffee shop for retired bureaucrats.
Then Dr Ayub started forging alliances without working out modalities.
The Peace Party first forged an alliance with Amar Singh’s Lok Manch which dissolved within weeks. Then it entered into a grand alliance with the Rashtriya Lok Dal and six other small parties. The alliance ended soon after the mandatory first press conference. The third alliance was with Apna Dal and Bundelkhand Congress but a week later, Dr Ayub opted for the fourth alliance with 11 parties, most of which exist only on paper. The alliance has now “expelled” the Peace Party for allegedly selling tickets for a price and inducting criminals.

Post new comment

<form action="/comment/reply/118943" accept-charset="UTF-8" method="post" id="comment-form"> <div><div class="form-item" id="edit-name-wrapper"> <label for="edit-name">Your name: <span class="form-required" title="This field is required.">*</span></label> <input type="text" maxlength="60" name="name" id="edit-name" size="30" value="Reader" class="form-text required" /> </div> <div class="form-item" id="edit-mail-wrapper"> <label for="edit-mail">E-Mail Address: <span class="form-required" title="This field is required.">*</span></label> <input type="text" maxlength="64" name="mail" id="edit-mail" size="30" value="" class="form-text required" /> <div class="description">The content of this field is kept private and will not be shown publicly.</div> </div> <div class="form-item" id="edit-comment-wrapper"> <label for="edit-comment">Comment: <span class="form-required" title="This field is required.">*</span></label> <textarea cols="60" rows="15" name="comment" id="edit-comment" class="form-textarea resizable required"></textarea> </div> <fieldset class=" collapsible collapsed"><legend>Input format</legend><div class="form-item" id="edit-format-1-wrapper"> <label class="option" for="edit-format-1"><input type="radio" id="edit-format-1" name="format" value="1" class="form-radio" /> Filtered HTML</label> <div class="description"><ul class="tips"><li>Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.</li><li>Allowed HTML tags: &lt;a&gt; &lt;em&gt; &lt;strong&gt; &lt;cite&gt; &lt;code&gt; &lt;ul&gt; &lt;ol&gt; &lt;li&gt; &lt;dl&gt; &lt;dt&gt; &lt;dd&gt;</li><li>Lines and paragraphs break automatically.</li></ul></div> </div> <div class="form-item" id="edit-format-2-wrapper"> <label class="option" for="edit-format-2"><input type="radio" id="edit-format-2" name="format" value="2" checked="checked" class="form-radio" /> Full HTML</label> <div class="description"><ul class="tips"><li>Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.</li><li>Lines and paragraphs break automatically.</li></ul></div> </div> </fieldset> <input type="hidden" name="form_build_id" id="form-71208c0c668e12857e83ffe12792cdaa" value="form-71208c0c668e12857e83ffe12792cdaa" /> <input type="hidden" name="form_id" id="edit-comment-form" value="comment_form" /> <fieldset class="captcha"><legend>CAPTCHA</legend><div class="description">This question is for testing whether you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.</div><input type="hidden" name="captcha_sid" id="edit-captcha-sid" value="86900435" /> <input type="hidden" name="captcha_response" id="edit-captcha-response" value="NLPCaptcha" /> <div class="form-item"> <div id="nlpcaptcha_ajax_api_container"><script type="text/javascript"> var NLPOptions = {key:'c4823cf77a2526b0fba265e2af75c1b5'};</script><script type="text/javascript" src="http://call.nlpcaptcha.in/js/captcha.js" ></script></div> </div> </fieldset> <span class="btn-left"><span class="btn-right"><input type="submit" name="op" id="edit-submit" value="Save" class="form-submit" /></span></span> </div></form>

No Articles Found

No Articles Found

No Articles Found

I want to begin with a little story that was told to me by a leading executive at Aptech. He was exercising in a gym with a lot of younger people.

Shekhar Kapur’s Bandit Queen didn’t make the cut. Neither did Shaji Karun’s Piravi, which bagged 31 international awards.