Days after SP-RLD alliance win in UP bypolls, Akhilesh again talks Opp unity, says Cong question later

When asked about the Congress’s presence in such an alliance, Akhilesh said that when the leaders — who were making the efforts to create the alliance — meet, a route will open up for that.

After taking charge of the SP as its national president ahead of the 2017 UP polls, Akhilesh had struck an alliance with the Congress, but they lost the election to the BJP.

In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, Akhilesh and BSP president Mayawati buried the hatchet and made an alliance in UP, but it failed to defeat the BJP-led alliance. The RLD too was part of their alliance, but it failed to win a single seat. Later, leaders of both the SP and the BSP broke off and started attacking each other. At present too, a race is on between the SP and the BSP, for Muslim votes in UP, with both parties accusing each other of helping the BJP in elections.

In the 2022 UP Assembly polls, Akhilesh had joined hands with various smaller parties and built an umbrella alliance. But a few days after their loss, the SP broke off with the PSP-Lohia of Akhilesh’s uncle Shivpal Singh Yadav, and the Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party (SBSP) of Om Prakash Rajbhar. At present, the SP has an alliance with the RLD, which contested the recent Assembly bypolls. While the SP retained the Mainpuri Lok Sabha seat, the RLD clinched Khatauli Assembly seat in western UP, defeating the BJP. But the SP also lost the Rampur Assembly seat to the BJP.

Akhilesh has cordial relations with Mamata Banerjee. They have campaigned for each other in Assembly polls of their respective states. Mamata had visited Varanasi ahead of the UP Assembly polls in 2022, and addressed a rally with Akhilesh and other leaders of SP’s allies.

Sources said weeks ago, the SP and the JD(U) had a round of talks on contesting the 2024 Lok Sabha polls together in UP. In September, Nitish had raised the pitch for unity against the BJP and met top leaders of other parties, including Sharad Pawar of the NCP, CPI(ML) general secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal, CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury, CPI general secretary D Raja, SP president Akhilesh Yadav and his father Mulayam Singh Yadav, as well as INLD patriarch O P Chautala.

But the “alternative” SP is talking about faces some challenges. First of all, the parties have not reached any consensus on “one leader”, precisely, their prime ministerial face. In fact, all leaders have ambitions and no one is ready to accept another’s leadership. “In the absence of a common leader, all these efforts are directionless,” remarked a SP leader in UP.

Secondly, except for the Congress, no other party has a cadre to reach out to voters across the country. For example, the JD(U) contested 27 seats in the 2022 UP Assembly polls, but lost all, scoring just 1.62 per cent votes on the seats it contested. Although the AAP won Punjab, in UP, it lost deposits on all 349 seats it contested.

In 2021, the JD(U) had contested 16 seats in West Bengal, but all its candidates lost their deposits.

Notably, the SP had initiated alliance talks with the BSP for the 2019 General Elections only after it had defeated the BJP in Gorakhpur and Phulpur Lok Sabha bypolls with the support of the BSP and other opposition parties. This was followed by the RLD defeating the BJP in the Kairana bypoll of 2018.

Once again, Akhilesh is advocating unity after his SP-RLD alliance defeated the BJP in Mainpuri and Khatauli.