Using 2022 UP template, Akhilesh connects with smaller OBC players to expand footprint

In the polls, the SP won 111 seats out of the state’s total 403 seats. The party’s vote share increased to 32% from 21.82% it had garnered in the 2017 polls, when it had won only 47 seats while contesting in alliance with the Congress.

Significantly, the SP is a key constituent of the INDIA grouping formed by a slew of the Opposition parties from across the country to take on the ruling BJP in the 2024 elections.

“Certain bigger parties of Opposition’s INDIA bloc are undermining the strength of SP by calling it a party having base in UP only. Hence SP is increasing its strength by joining hands with smaller parties. SP leaders are in touch with Hanuman Beniwal of Rashtriya Loktantrik Party (RLP) in Rajasthan. Akhilesh is working to develop PDA (Pichde, Dalit, Alpasankhyak) alliance. If this formula increases seats of SP in Lok Sabha elections, that will strengthen position of Akhilesh among INDIA leaders,” said a SP leader.

The RLP contested the recent Rajasthan Assembly polls in alliance with Chandra Shekhar Azad-led Azad Samaj Party. The RLP won one seat as party chief Hanuman Beniwal, a Jat leader, who is currently a Lok Sabha member, was elected as the MLA from Khinwasar. In Rajasthan, Jats are included in the OBC category.

SP spokesperson Rajendra Chaudhary said, “Akhilesh Yadav is bringing together parties of similar ideologies.These are new parties which have their own following. Nothing has been decided about alliance in Lok Sabha polls but support of these parties will be helpful in the elections to defeat the BJP.”

On December 4, Akhilesh inaugurated the office of the National Equal Party (NEP) in Varanasi, which has been founded by Shashi Pratap Singh, a Rajbhar (OBC) leader who was earlier associated with SBSP chief Om Prakash Rajbhar but parted ways last year.

Last month, Akhilesh addressed a rally in Haryana’s Jind town, which was organised by Independent legislator Balraj Kundu, who has formed a new political outfit Haryana Jansewak Party (HJP). Kundu represents Meham in the Haryana Assembly. Kundu belongs to the Jat community listed in the OBC category in UP, which has significant presence in western UP districts.

Referring to the HJP, the SP’s Haryana unit chief Surendra Singh Bhati said, “The possibility of our alliance cannot be ruled out. Certainly when like-minded parties come together, they go to create new political paths.”

Bhati said Akhilesh asked him to strengthen the party organisation in Haryana in the run-up to the Lok Sabha polls, adding that Yadavs make up around four per cent of Haryana’s population. In the 2019 Haryana polls, the SP had contested four seats, but had drawn a blank.

Last month, Akhilesh was the chief guest at a convention of the Suheldeo Swabhiman Party (SSP) founded by Mahendra Rajbhar, a former associate of Om Prakash Rajbhar, in Lucknow. After cutting his ties with Om Prakash, Mahendra floated his own outfit. Om Prakash was an SP ally in the 2022 UP polls but later walked out of the alliance and joined the BJP-led NDA camp earlier this year.

In the Ghosi Assembly bypoll held in September last year, when Om Prakash was canvassing for the BJP candidate, Mahendra extended his support to the SP nominee who won the election.

At his party’s convention, Mahendra claimed the Rajbhar community has hopes to get respect and their due rights from Akhilesh only, who too acknowledged Rajbhars’ contribution to his party’s win in the Ghosi bypoll.

“We have made alliance with SP for Lok Sabha polls. My party will field candidates on the seats that SP will give considering strength of the party (SSP),” Mahendra said while speaking to The Indian Express.

Also, Akhilesh has once again joined hands with the Mahan Dal’s Keshav Dev Maurya, who had walked out of the SP-led alliance after the 2022 polls and later started canvassing for the BSP.

During the recent Madhya Pradesh Assembly elections, Maurya campaigned for the SP candidates. However, their alliance could not win any seat there. In MP’s Jatara seat, SP candidate R R Bansal got only 15,060 votes. He had got 26,600 votes in 2018 when he had contested separately on the MD’s ticket.

Meanwhile, the SP has continued with its alliance with the Jan Janwadi Party and the Apna Dal (Kamerawadi), which were part of its 2022 poll alliance.

The Jan Janwadi Party has its base among the Bind and Kashyap communities, which are in sizeable numbers in over a dozen districts of eastern UP like Ballia, Jaunpur, Prayagraj, etc. Its president Sanjay Chauhan said, “Smaller parties represent those castes which don’t have strong political representation. Akhilesh ji is trying to bring them at one platform. If they will be taken along, their votes will also come together.”

The Apna Dal (Kamerawadi) is a splinter group of the Apna Dal founded by Kurmi leader late Sonelal Patel. In the 2022 polls, it contested four seats in alliance with the SP, but could not win any seat. Krishna’s daughter Pallavi contested the election on the SP ticket and won in Sirathu, defeating the BJP’s deputy CM Keshav Prasad Maurya.

Pallavi’s younger sister Anupriya Patel, Union minister, is the president of Apna Dal (Sonelal), which is an ally of the BJP both in UP and at the Centre.