Modi government loses sheen; unable to deliver on key promises in Uttar Pradesh

One big achievement of LS 2014 was that even UP rose above caste and communal politics to push through an idea that had captured the nation's imagination: The Gujarat model of development. From Amethi to Varanasi and everywhere in between, Modi's Gujarat model became the rallying point opposition parties debated and the BJP defended. In the end, it struck a chord and became symbolic of hope.

In Modi sarkar's one year some sheen has worn off. Political scientists who saw Modi as a catalyst of change now say the PM took people's aspirations to such heights they became impossible to match. In UP, some key promises Modi made in his speeches, included additional power supply, a promise to settle the sugarcane arrears issue, more jobs and better education facilities.

Analyst and farmer leader Sudhir Panwar said: "UP is an agrarian state. The BJP government's somersaults on remunerative prices of crops cut the UP farmers to the quick so badly that the BJP failed to repeat its surge in last year's by- elections. As if the MSP status quo was not bad enough, the Centre's alleged inaction- failure to announce a special package, or release disaster mitigation funds for farmers hit by unseasonal rain- caused annoyance.

The UP BJP looks less confident than it was a year ago. It retained three of the 14 seats in the by- polls since last September. Though it had planned to field BJP- supported candidates in the panchayat polls later this year, the saffron party is considering contesting only for zilla panchayats and above. While BJP leaders insist this is to keep the party together, pundits read this as an attempt to guard against another embarrassing defeat.

There's some change in Modi's constituency Varanasi, which has kept up its exuberance for the PM. Varanasi's ghats look cleaner, the young, old and tourists surf internet in Wi- Fi zones and Modi's adopted Jayapore is coming up as a model village. But traffic snarls remain. The promise of 100 flyovers is a distant dream. BHU's head of political science, Kaushal Kishore Mishra says Varanasi had turned to Modi with great expectation. "People wanted development and it's showing slowly."

In Varanasi, people complained that JNNURM pipelines had been laid but a sewage treatment plant never came up. In one year, work on the plant has begun. Cleaning the Ganga has been on the national agenda for nearly 30 years, but yielded little results. With Namami Gange on the anvil, it waits to see how things change.