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Journalism of Courage
In the end, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav did not prove up to what was always going to be a Herculean task.
However, the 48-year-old, who took over the mantle from SP patron and his father Mulayam Singh Yadav, put up the only challenge to the BJP, drawing crowds, shutting out in-house family squabbling contenders, and putting some distance between himself and the “goondaism” baggage of his last government.
Pitted in a head-on fight with the BJP, the SP increased its seat tally and its vote share by 11%, but fell way short of the half-way mark of 202. In 2017, when it fought in alliance with the Congress, the SP had won 47 seats, with a vote share of 21.28%. This time, it was set to win 111, with a vote share of 32%.
Till late in the evening, there was no reaction from Akhilesh to the poll results. In a tweet, the official handle of the SP, which has been alleging poll irregularities, asked why the Election Commission was not handing its candidates their victory certificates.
One of the biggest decisions taken by Akhilesh, after the defeat in the 2017 Assembly and 2019 Lok Sabha elections, was not to align with former partners Congress and BSP. This time, Akhilesh made more strategic alliances, with parties smaller than the SP, bringing to his table cohesive, calculated vote banks.
These included Om Prakash Rajbhar’s SBSP, Mahan Dal led by Keshav Dev Maurya, Janwadi Party (Socialist) led by Sanjay Singh Chauhan, Shivpal Yadav’s Pragatisheel Samajwadi Party (Lohia), Apna Dal-Kamerawadi led by Union Minister Anupriya Patel’s mother Krishna Patel, and most importantly the RLD in western UP.
With the RLD’s Jayant Chaudhary, a young leader emerging from a political and family crucible similar to Akhilesh’s, the SP chief appeared to have made a fortuitous choice.
The alliances though failed to bring to the SP fold the non-Yadav OBC votes it was hoping for, including in the RLD stronghold of western UP. The SP support base seemed to be confined to Muslims and Yadavs.
It was the support of the non-Yadav OBCs that had won the BJP UP in 2017.
Akhilesh’s other success, in weaning away a host of big leaders from the BJP, including Cabinet minister Swami Prasad Maurya, ahead of the polls, also flopped. Swami Prasad himself lost, from Fazilnagar.
An SP leader said that as CM, Akhilesh had worked hard to project a pro-development image, putting in place work for Lucknow’s first Metro, and giving the state the Agra-Lucknow Expressway. “In the 2017 elections, our slogan was ‘kaam bolta hai (work talks)’. But we lost and realised that apart from development and delivering on promises, we need to get our caste calculations spot on,” the leader said.
While Akhilesh has virtually no opposition within the SP ranks, he can expect some blowback from failing to capitalise on many issues facing the ruling BJP, including Covid mismanagement, lockdown discontent, and joblessness.
The SP promise of filling up 11 lakh vacant government posts in the state did not work. While his assurance of bringing back the Old Pension Scheme found resonance, and is now seeing an echo in other states, the success of the BJP among postal voters showed this too didn’t result in votes.
The BJP’s repeated attacks on Akhilesh being “anti-Hindu” also might have hit home, including his recent remarks acknowledging Mohammad Ali Jinnah’s contribution. To avert this, Akhilesh had purposefully kept silent on issues concerning Muslims in the state in the last five years.
Some of the questioning voices may come from within the family. When sister-in-law Aparna Yadav left for the BJP to nurture her own poll ambitions recently, Akhilesh notably made no effort to retain her. During the campaign, the other family members were almost invisible. That included uncle Shivpal Yadav, who had rebelled over Akhilesh’s rise within the SP and formed own party, but made a tame return – agreeing to not only contest on the SP symbol, but also be content with just two campaign appearances.
Even Mulayam, 84, who is ailing, remained out of public view. He appeared for campaigning once in Akhilesh’s seat Karhal (Mainpuri) and once in Malhani, to canvass for his close confidant late Parasnath Yadav’s son Lucky Yadav.
In sidelining the family, Akhilesh hoped to blunt the BJP’s attack of “pariwarwad (nepotism)”.
If the BJP wielded all its ammunition in the polls – from Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah to BJP chief J P Nadda and Defence Minister Rajnath Singh apart from Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath – the SP had almost only Akhilesh. He undertook 131 rallies, while keeping allies by his side to convey that the SP was not just a party of Yadavs.
SP insiders said Akhilesh also worked behind the scenes to ensure all cracks were papered over. A senior leader said he personally reached out to those denied tickets.
However, the charge that Akhilesh remained absent for most of the five years, only waking up in the last few months, trailed the SP chief throughout.
The 2022 loss marks Akhilesh’s third – after 2017 and 2019. He had won his first election in 2000, a bypoll for the Kannauj Lok Sabha seat. In 2009, he was appointed state president. Among his first steps was to make the party more appealing to youths, by trying to get rid of the tag of a “goonda raj” party. At 38, he became the youngest CM of UP in 2012.
After the 2017 loss, Akhilesh had returned to Parliament as an MP from Azamgarh.
In what will be the saving grace for Akhilesh, fighting his first Assembly election, he won by more than 60,000 votes from Karhal seat in Mainpuri – considered an SP bastion – getting almost double the votes of his nearest BJP rival, S P S Baghel.
A senior SP leader said: “We fought well. There are so many seats where we crossed the one lakh mark but fell short by a few votes. We will hold meetings, introspect and the struggle for social justice will continue.”
