The Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister is using the ‘BJP fear’ factor to invite partnerships for the future. The fact is that he is as worried about his rival Mayawati bouncing back as he is of the BJP in the State
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav appears to be going through some strange turmoil of a political kind, and this is getting reflected in the out-of-the-blue statements he has been making of late. Just the other day, at a media event, he expressed readiness to align with the Congress for the 2019 lok Sabha election if the party agreed to his formula that Mr Mulayam Singh Yadav would be the prime ministerial candidate and Mr Rahul Gandhi the deputy prime ministerial choice. With a straight face, he said he was willing ‘on the spot’ to announce his Samajwadi Party’s tie-up with the Congress if the latter accepted his wonderful proposal.
A few days after the Bihar election result was known, Mr Akhilesh Yadav had been enthused enough to say that a ‘grand alliance’ (on reading between the lines, it meant a coming together of his party and the Bahujan Samaj Party) on Bihar lines could be created in Uttar Pradesh in time for the 2017 State Assembly election.
The junior Yadav (‘Tipu’ to his family) is a young man with just four years of experience as Chief Minister and with a legitimate burning desire to make a mark. Shackled by the old guard’s grip on his party and on the administration he is supposed to be heading, and sandwiched between a combative Bahujan Samaj Party and a resurgent Bharatiya Janata Party, Mr Akhilesh Yadav is trying to create for himself the image of a leader mature enough to stitch partnerships which can keep the Samajwadi Party afloat in the turbulent political waters of the State, and keep it safe from the jaws of the BJP.
The problem is not that he is talking of bizarre combinations; it’s the cavalier manner in which he is making his opinions known. let alone the absence of any groundwork behind the remarks, there appears a serious lack of sincerity as well. For instance, take his ‘Mulayam as Prime Minister, Rahul as Deputy Prime Minister’ formula. He said it in Mr Gandhi’s presence, and the Congress vice president was left smiling sheepishly. It is just possible that Mr Akhilesh Yadav was rubbing it into the Congress leader. After all, the Congress had virtually projected Mr Gandhi as its prime ministerial candidate in the 2014 lok Sabha election.
Having miserably failed in its endeavour and left with some 45 seats in a House of 543, it is still licking its wounds and working over-time to protect its ‘young’ leader from the backlash of defeat. And now we have Mr Akhilesh Yadav downgrading Mr Gandhi to deputy prime ministerial level… Surely the message could not have been clearer: The Congress’s hope of the future must re-assess his strength and not aim for what he doesn’t deserve, at least as of now.
The Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister also held out a veiled warning: The Congress would stand nowhere in the State if it contested the elections (both the forthcoming Assembly and later the lok Sabha ones) on its own. In showing the Congress its place and simultaneously according it the privilege of being a partner of the future, Mr Akhilesh Yadav’s unsaid message was the following: ‘Align with us on our terms or perish in isolation.’ It came as no surprise that the Congress’s reaction was muted to the Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister’s grand talk. To begin with, the party could not make sense of the ‘offer’. And later, after the issue sunk in, it became apparent that the junior Yadav was at best pulling the Congress’s leg or at worst arm-twisting it. Of course, it is entirely possible that the Congress may, after all these barbs, still form an alliance with the Samajwadi Party. But that may not happen in the 2017 Assembly election for a variety of reasons.
let us now focus on Mr Akhilesh Yadav’s other remark of a ‘grand alliance’. The Chief Minister’s comment, alongside that of a more direct one by a Minister in his Government, made it abundantly clear that Mr Yadav had a Samajwadi Party-Bahujan Samaj Party partnership in mind. That alone qualifies for the ‘grand alliance’ title, fittingly equal to Bihar’s Rashtriya Janata Dal-Janata Dal-United pact. Surely, the Chief Minister was not hinting at a Samajwadi Party-Congress-left combination — because, if was, he better find a less majestic name for the grouping, since both the Congress and the left are nearly immaterial in the State as things stand presently.
Mr Akhilesh Yadav may have suffered a bit of memory lapse (for he was not even in politics at that time), but Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati has not forgotten the dramatic events of June 2, 1995, when she came close to being killed by a wild mob of over 200 Samajwadi Party supporters and local leaders at the State guest house in lucknow, for allegedly having betrayed the then Samajwadi Party-Bahujan Samaj Party coalition and for trying to split the Samajwadi Party. Mr Mulayam Singh Yadav was then the Chief Minister. He said not a word in condemnation of the attack by his people. He lost his chair soon after that incident.
A traumatised Mayawati, who replaced the senior Yadav as the State’s new boss, vowed to never again align with the Samajwadi Party — which she called a “party ofgoondas” — regardless of future political compulsions. Indeed, since then, Ms Mayawati’s core and sole purpose has been to emasculate the Samajwadi Party. To that end, she has had no compulsions in tying up with the BJP or siding with the Congress as the occasion demanded; and she will not have compulsions in the future too. Moreover, it makes no sense for Ms Mayawati to align with the Samajwadi Party and, therefore, help prop up Mr Mulayam Singh Yadav’s prospects of becoming the country’s Prime Minister. Remember, Behenji herself is not averse to gaining that position.
So, why is Mr Akhilesh Yadav so eager (or desperate) for an allianceIJ Does he believe that the Samajwadi Party alone may not be able to repeat its 2012 performanceIJ His stated goal is to prevent the BJP from gaining power in Uttar Pradesh. The Samajwadi Party checkmated the BJP in 2012 without any outside help; so, does he hold that in 2017, his party will not have the strength to defeat the BJP on its ownIJ
It is evident that Mr Yadav suffers from a lack of confidence in his and his party’s capacity years down the line since 2012. Maybe he is right in believing (which he will not admit for the record) that he and his Government have lost the enormous trust the people had reposed. Is he using the ‘BJP fear’ factor to attract support for himself and his party in order to take on Ms MayawatiIJ