Law and order situation took new low in Uttar Pradesh

LUCKNOW: Uttar Pradesh remained in headlines throughout the year for poor law and order situation and crime against women, besides seeing a resurgence of BJP on the political front and marginalisation of regional players Samajwadi Party and BSP.

The Akhilesh Yadav government had some sleepless nights be it for the Badaun sisters case or communal clashes.

The death of two teenaged cousins in Badaun who were found hanging from a tree still remains a mystery with CBI filing a closure report ruling out murder and rape as was suggested earlier and concluding that it was a case of suicide.

The enormity of corruption in the state was highlighted in the massive wealth recovered during income tax raids on controversial NOIDA chief engineer Yadav Singh and also indicated a nexus among politicians, bureaucrats and technocrats.

Reiterating once again its political importance, the state saw BJP's prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi winning with a thumping victory from Varanasi besides electing country's home minister Rajnath Singh (Lucknow) among its 73 MPs from here along with its allies.

Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar, who was the Goa chief minister, was elected from the state in the biennial Rajya Sabha election in the later part of the year.

The biggest causality in the Lok Sabha elections were the regional players like BSP, which drew a blank, and Samajwadi Party, which won only five seats.

Congress, too, fared poorly with only party chief Sonia Gandhi and her son Rahul Gandhi making it to Lok Sabha from the state.

Samajwadi Party, however, regained some pride in the Assembly by-elections winning nine of the 12 seats earlier held by BJP (11) and its ally Apna Dal. This saw an opening for SP president Mulayam Singh Yadav at the national level with Janata Parivar leaders coming together for a bigger role.

The closing of ranks of socialist leaders were given some strength by two of them -- Mulayam Singh Yadav and RJD' chief Lalu Prasad -- forging a new alliance through their children.

The wedding celebrations of Lalu's youngest daughter Raj Laxmi with Mulayam's grandnephew Tej Pratap Singh, elected MP from Mainpuri after his granduncle relinquished it, have already got underway and the big day has been fixed for February.