It has been an unusual election in Uttar Pradesh.
The event that once used to be an Eastman colour festival was played out in drab black and white this time. The scene was colourless; voters silent, candidates remained confused. It was only the media that played the poll game to the hilt, while onlookers watched on amused.
The colour, this time, was restricted to the green and golden wheat crops in the field and the intermittent bright yellow mustard flowers that bloomed alongside.
Even the normally politically-vibrant areas such as Varanasi, Gorakhpur and Allahabad in eastern Uttar Pradesh, or the rough and rustic western towns of Meerut, Bulandshahr, Budaun and Baghpat, or the badlands of Etawah, Mainpuri, Etah or Farrukhabad in central Uttar Pradesh, or poverty-ridden Bundelkhand or communally sensitive districts —- all seemed awash with silence and dullness.
With the Election Commission banning posters and banners and parties forgetting to coin slogans and evolve new methods of campaigning, stranger on visit to UP would have found it tough to know if elections were actually being held. One constituency seemed no different from the other and the poll festivities were conspicuous by their complete absence.
To save on the expenditure, candidates cut out pamphlets, loudspeakers and street meetings and preferred campaigning by SMS and emails. The meetings by star campaigners also became painfully repetitive by the time the polls got over.
The silence, at times, seemed almost eerie.
The voters, in these elections, were also surprisingly silent. With the national parties trying to bring development back on the voter’s agenda and regional parties trying to keep caste on the priority list — albeit discreetly — the voter chose to play safe by sealing his lips and avoiding clashes. Moreover, in the absence of publicity through banners and hoardings, a large number of voters were not even aware of who their candidates were. One such voter, who had supported a particular candidate in Kanpur, was shocked to find that he belonged to the constituency of another candidate when he went to cast his vote.