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Journalism of Courage
Behind the Samajwadi Party (SP)’s decision to continue with its existing alliance with smaller parties and not tie up with any big party like the Congress or the BSP in Uttar Pradesh for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, are various reasons based on its past experiences, party insiders said.
A key reason for this strategy is that the SP wants to contest from across UP on a common agenda against the BJP while aiming to maximise its gains. Secondly, the party wants to maintain its dominance in seat-sharing. And, thirdly, in the SP’s view while its major pre-poll allies in the past benefited from their alliances, the SP could not get any dividends from them.
Making it clear that the SP would stick to this strategy adopted in the 2022 Assembly polls, the party’s national president Akhilesh Yadav has maintained that his party will contest the Lok Sabha elections from the state’s 80 seats along with its existing allies.
“We have seen what happened in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections when SP had forged an alliance with BSP. SP had then contested from 37 seats and won just five. Key members of the Yadav family like Dimple, Dharmendra and Akshay lost the elections. On the other hand, BSP that had not won any seat in 2014, contested on 38 seats and won 10. That showed that BSP benefited from the alliance and SP’s vote bank,” said an SP leader.
The SP camp pointed out that the national parties would demand more seats even if they have a low support base in the state. “Also, bigger parties tend to pick the seats of their preferences and also demand safe seats for their senior leaders. Such parties try to dominate seat-sharing even when they have no strong base in the state as compared to the SP,” said the leader.
Another SP leader, who had been involved in the alliance-making exercise in the past, said, “In 2017 Assembly polls, when SP had an alliance with Congress, our party was already ruling the state and we were contesting on the slogan – ‘Kaam bolta hai (our work speaks for itself)’ – and were focused on UP’s local issues. But Congress was campaigning on national issues and was targeting only Prime Minister Narendra Modi and RSS. In Assembly elections, local issues are more important. So that damaged the alliance’s prospects in the polls.”
The SP-Congress alliance had then come a cropper, with the SP losing power to the BJP. The SP had contested 311 seats and got 47, while the Congress could win only seven after fighting from 114 seats. Amid the lack of proper coordination between the top leaders of two parties, there were several seats in which both the SP and Congress had fielded their candidates.
In the 2022 Assembly elections, the SP had joined hands with smaller parties including the Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD), Suheldeo Bharatiya Samaj Party (SBSP), Apna Dal (Kamerawadi), Janwadi Socialist Party and Mahan Dal. All these parties claim to have influence among non-Yadav OBC voters in different regions of UP. After their alliance failed to dislodge the BJP from power, the SBSP walked out of it. However, fuelled by its alliance with these smaller parties, the SP increased its tally in the Assembly to 111.
For the 2024 elections, the SP has already confirmed its alliance with the Jayant Chaudhary-led RLD, indicating that it would also ensure space for other existing allies. “These parties have influence among non-Yadav OBC seats in some areas. In its equation with them, SP can play the role of the dominant partner and decision-maker. Like the strategy followed in the 2022 Assembly polls, the SP can field candidates of these smaller parties on its symbol in some seats to increase its tally in the Lok Sabha,” said an SP leader. “Some candidates of our existing allies had contested on our symbol in the 2022 polls without any fuss and had won too. Such an adjustment will not be possible with bigger parties though,” he said.
In the 2022 elections, four of the SP’s allies contested from a total of 57 seats on their respective symbols, winning altogether 14 seats. The RLD contested 33 seats and won eight. The SBSP won six of 18 seats it contested.
The Apna Dal (Kamerawadi) – a splinter group of Apna Dal founded by late Kurmi leader Sonelal Patel – lost all four seats it contested, with even its president Krishna Patel losing her election from the Pratapgarh seat.
Krishna’s daughter Pallavi, however, contested the election from the Sirathu constituency on the SP ticket and won, defeating the BJP candidate and deputy chief minister Keshav Prasad Maurya with a margin of 7,337 votes.
Pallavi’s younger sister Anupriya Patel is the president of the Apna Dal (Sonelal), which is an ally of the BJP both in UP and at the Centre.
On Akhilesh’s meetings with the leaders of several Opposition parties in recent months, such as JD(U) supremo and Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, the SP leader said, “These parties don’t have any base in UP. SP is not interested in wasting seats for these parties in the state. Winning seats in UP is important for inflicting damage on the BJP.”
