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Journalism of Courage
WITH Akhilesh Yadav continuing his statements against the Congress dominating any anti-BJP front, the Congress has hit back accusing the Samajwadi Party of acting in connivance with the BJP.
In recent weeks, Akhilesh has promised equidistance from both the BJP and Congress – a party the SP has mostly been soft on, and aligned with once – held talks with the Congress’s bitter rival and Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee and, amidst the rallying of Opposition parties behind Rahul Gandhi, suggested that the Congress should support regional parties in states rather than the other way around.
Akhilesh has hinted that the SP is also open to contesting Lok Sabha elections from the Gandhi family seat of Amethi, which it earlier stayed away from.
Accusing Akhilesh of becoming a “pawn” in the hands of the BJP, Congress state president Brijlal Khabri told The Indian Express: “Third front ban nahin raha, banwaya ja raha hai (A third front is not coming into being, there is push to form it).”
Commenting on Akhilesh’s recent meeting with Mamata, Khabri said the SP chief should be careful. “All I want to point out is that in the photographs that came from West Bengal, we saw Didi sitting on a higher chair, while other so-called leaders wanting to join the so-called third front did not even get proper chairs. In such inequality, how can there be partners in a third front?”
Alliances are between equals, the Congress chief added. “Partners hone ja rahe hain aur zameen aasman ka antar dikh raha hai (They are about to be partners and one can see the gap between them)… Neither the SP nor the TMC has a nationwide base. They are regional parties and are just creating drama, as directed. But the Congress will not be affected by these tactics.”
Accusing the SP of acting in tandem with the BJP, Khabri highlighted Akhilesh’s statement recently that Uttar Pradesh minister Jaiveer Singh had helped the SP win the recent Mainpuri Lok Sabha bypolls. “He himself admitted that they (the SP and BJP) are in connivance with each other.”
Khabri also said that the Congress, which has been moribund in UP since last year’s Assembly polls, was deliberately keeping a low profile in the state, and preparing for next polls going house to house rather than holding big campaigns.
Khabri’s show of confidence notwithstanding, in UP, the Congress can hardly afford losing the few friends it has left. The SP’s distancing from it is likely to affect it much more than the other way round.
The Congress and Samajwadi Party had entered an alliance before the 2017 Assembly elections in the state, with Rahul and Akhilesh holding high-visibility joint campaigns. However, the alliance had not worked for either, with the SP reduced from 224 out of 403 seats in 2012 to 47 out of 311 it contested in 2017. The Congress fell from 28 to mere 7 of 114 it fought.
Since then, the graph of Congress has gone down consistently in UP, in both the Lok Sabha and Assembly polls.
Despite this, both parties have maintained an unspoken understanding of not contesting seats held by each other’s high command. So if the SP did not contest Rae Bareli and Amethi Lok Sabha seats in 2019, the Congress has not fielded candidates in the past from Mainpuri, Kannauj, Azamgarh and Firozabad from where Mulayam, Dimple, Akhilesh and cousin Akshay contested, respectively.
In 2019, Rae Bareli was the only seat won by the Congress, with Rahul losing from the family pocket borough of Amethi.
At two press meetings, over Saturday and Sunday, Akhilesh said: “All the parties fighting against the BJP across the country should come together, and the Congress should decide its role at the national level. It should support other political parties fighting strongly against the BJP in their regions. Samay aa gaya hai ki Congress kshteriya dalon ko aage karen (The time has come for the Congress to put regional parties in the front), and support them in their pursuit to defeat the BJP… The SP is fighting the BJP at every level in UP and it will defeat the ruling party in the Lok Sabha.”
The SP chief added that the party has always acted responsibly on the national political front and would continue doing so.
Akhilesh, however, dismissed the BJP’s attempts to paint the protests against Rahul disqualification as being anti-OBC. The SP has joined the Opposition protests against the government at the Centre, including over Rahul’s disqualification.
After the Lok Sabha Secretariat order disqualifying Rahul, Akhilesh tweeted: “Disqualifying someone from Parliament does not end the political challenge. The biggest movement is not fought in Parliament but on the streets.”
