The path to Delhi

UTTAR PRADESH holds the key to power in Delhi and no one knows it better than PM Narendra Modi who led the BJP to victory in 73 out of its 80 seats. If the Modi government is to be successfully challenged in 2019, the battle, and a winning one at that, has to be fought in the Gangetic belt. Akhilesh Yadav’s re-election as the Samajwadi chief suggests that a challenge is emerging after the disorder and demoralisation triggered in the Opposition ranks by crushing defeats in the Lok Sabha and Assembly elections. Akhilesh has symbolically demonstrated his grip on the party apparatus by getting the constitution amended to give himself a five-year term as against the existing three years. His father and veteran politician Mulayam Singh Yadav, and uncle Shivpal, sat out the party convention but it is clear the baton has passed on to the younger generation.

Akhilesh, however, has his task cut out for him. His extra generous seat-sharing arrangement with the Congress in the Assembly polls has marked him out as a man other parties can do business with. Mulayam, in contrast, had bad blood in the past with BSP leader Mayawati, which made a seat-sharing pact impossible as long as he was calling the shots. Mulayam’s inflexibility had also kept him out of UPA-I despite the SP raking in an all-time high of 36 Lok Sabha seats. 

The first step for Akhilesh would be to build bridges with the BSP supremo Mayawati, who might not be averse to such a proposal. Her key aides have deserted her and her social base has fragmented. While the initial task before the secular Opposition would be to put up a credible challenge in the byelections to the Lok Sabha seats vacated by the UP CM and Deputy CM, the battle for 2019 cannot be effectively joined with unfocussed resentment as the sole impetus. Akhilesh, along with Rahul Gandhi and Mayawati, will need to craft a new social imagery. Even with age on his side and the party unitedly backing him, Akhilesh has his task cut out.