The many knots in ties with Samajwadi Party

From a position of strength, the Samajwadi Party (SP) national president Akhilesh Yadav has been slowly delegated to a “junior partner” in the still-to-come-up SP-BSP alliance in Uttar Pradesh. And he has only his extended family to thank for this state of affairs.

Soon after BSP national president Mayawati announced her support for the Congress to form a government in Madhya Pradesh, Yadav, too, declared support of his lone MLA from Bijawar to the Congress party.

A day before the results, Yadav and Mayawati were the only two leaders of national standing who were conspicuous by their absence at the 21-party opposition meeting in Delhi. The meeting was held to work out a joint strategy to dislodge the BJP ahead of the Lok Sabha polls.

However, with the Congress party making a comeback in the three Hindi-speaking states where the SP was also aspiring to get a toe hold, the equations have changed.

Akhilesh Yadav has often spoken about the excellent personal rapport he shares with Congress national president Rahul Gandhi, especially when the two “UP ke ladke” (sons of UP) went around campaigning during the 2017 Assembly election.

Though their alliance did not go down well with the voters, he had stressed that it would not stop him from nurturing a personal relationship with Rahul Gandhi.

However, as talks of the SP-BSP alliance gathered momentum after the Gorakhpur and Phoolpur victories, things changed gradually. Barely three days after Mayawati sprang a surprise by tying up with erstwhile Congress leader Ajit Jogi’s Janta Congress in Chhattisgarh, Akhilesh Yadav also tied up with Gondwana Gantantra Party in Chhattisgarh and MP.

Speaking to the media, Yadav had said, “Congress ne bahut intezaar karaya... Kab tak intezaar karein? Tareekh ghoshit hone ja rahi hai ab toh; isliye ab intezaar nahi hoga” (The Congress has made us wait for too long, how long could we wait? Now the election dates are to be announced. We will wait no longer).

He maintained that the Congress should have taken the lead in holding talks for an alliance and had urged the grand old party to show some large heartedness if it wanted to defeat the BJP in 2019.

A close associate of Yadav reiterated this lament saying that the SP was still expecting the Congress to show large heartedness to ensure a mahagatbandhan  in Uttar Pradesh. — SN