Cracks are developing in the Samajwadi Party-led alliance as one of its partners, Mahan Dal president Keshav Maurya, has indicated parting company with the main Opposition party.
Samajwadi Party on Monday had advised its leaders and the leaders of the allies to refrain from making statements to the media.
The Mahan Dal president attacked SP leader Swami Prasad Maurya who lost the Assembly election from Fazilnagar constituency in Deoria district.
Questioning the entry of Swami Prasad Maurya in the Samajwadi Party ahead of the UP Assembly elections, the Mahan Dal leader said, “Swami Prasad Maurya’s entry in the Samajwadi Party was a conspiracy by the Bharatiya Janata Party. Maurya was drafted in the Samajwadi Party at the behest of the BJP with a clear political design.”
Swami Prasad Maurya was labour minister in the Yogi Adityanath government and had joined the Samajwadi Party in January.
“With the entry of Swami Prasad Maurya a sense of complacency gripped the Samajwadi Party. The SP became confident that it would now get the majority of votes of the Other Backward Classes (OBCs). The SP leadership should have realised that no particular leader commands the votes, it is the political party which has the vote bank,” the Mahan Dal president said.
He charged that due to the influence of Swami Prasad Maurya, the full potential of Mahan Dal was not used during the elections.
“The overconfidence of Swami Prasad Maurya proved to be a disaster for the Samajwadi Party as he led Akhilesh Yadav to be complacent about closely contested UP assembly elections,” the Mahan Dal president said, and added, “Swami Prasad Maurya has lost the confidence of the people and he could not even win the election but he is in the habit of making tall claims.”
“Mahan Dal was not given due importance in seat distribution among the allies of the Samajwadi Party. Mahan Dal was given only two seats while more seats were given to Rashtriya Lok Dal and Apna Dal (Kamerawadi). If the Samajwadi Party fails to honour the allies and does not give due importance to us then the Mahan Dal will be constrained to explore other options,” said Mahan Dal president Keshav Maurya.
Pitted in a direct contest with the BJP, the SP increased its seat tally and its vote share by 11 per cent but fell way short of the half-way mark of 202 in the UP assembly. In 2017, when the SP fought the polls in alliance with the Congress, it had won 47 seats, with a vote share of 21.28 per cent. This time, it has won 111 seats with a vote share of 32 per cent.
After losing the 2017 assembly election and the setback in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, Akhilesh Yadav decided against alliance with former partners Congress and Bahujan Samaj Party. For 2022 assembly elections, Akhilesh made more strategic alliances, with small caste-based parties, thus forging cohesive, calculated vote banks. These included Om Prakash Rajbhar’s Suheldev Bhartiya Samaj Party (SBSP), Mahan Dal led by Keshav Dev Maurya, Janwadi Party (Socialist) led by Sanjay Singh Chauhan, Apna Dal-Kamerawadi led by Union Minister Anupriya Patel’s mother Krishna Patel, and most importantly the RLD in western.