He is a lone fighter. Despite absence of his father, he had left no stone unturned visiting most of the Assembly constituencies in Azamgarh division comprising Azamgarh, Ballia and Mau districts that had played a key role in making him Chief Minister five years ago as out of 21 seats, Samajwadi Party (SP) had won 16, more than three-fourths while among the rest, three were bagged by Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and one each by Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Quami Ekta Dal(QED).
As the division is going to the polls on Saturday, the debate is on how hard Akhilesh Yadav had campaigned there, almost lonely, in absence of his father who had addressed several meetings there in 2012 electioneering and himself successfully contested the parliamentary elections too.
The impacts of alliance were virtually missing there as Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi did not visit there even a single time in entire division as no party candidate is in the fray. Even others senior Congress leaders also avoided visiting there to give an impression that it is a strong natural alliance. “If Akhilesh is scheduled to make a roadshow in Varanasi on Saturday, along with Rahul, for electioneering of three Congress candidates from city constituencies, why Rahul did not make the same spirit at least in big cities areas of Azamgarh, Mau and Ballia, at least, once,” said a retired Government employee living in Kairatpur Mohalla in Azamgarh Om Prakash Sinha, a firm believer of ‘Kaam Bolta Hai’, at least in Azamgarh.
Accepting that there is some rise in saffron wave in Azamgarh, Sinha said “Akhilesh himself addressed 7-8 impressive rallies and majority of people are supporters of the SP as they believe that all development work which were done there were due to Mulayam and Akhilesh,” he said, claiming “the absence of local MP Mulayam would not affect polling as the people know that due to old age patriarch family head could not visit here but they have full faith in Akhilesh and at least in city area, Muslims are intact with SP.”
Contrary to Azamgarh where in 2012, SP almost clean swept claiming nine out of 10, Mau is smallest district if the division where SP bagged 50 per cent seat in last polls, two out of four. It is the district where Mokhtar Ansari joining of Mayawati is loses for SP while shifting of many big Chauhans to BJP is its gains. “We’re getting support from all local Congress workers and we are doing faring well in most of the seats of Mau as people believe that under Akhilesh leadership, the state will march towards prosperity,” said Mau city SP secretary Fadees-ul-Haq, adding that both of rallies of Akhilesh in the district drew huge crowds.
In far-east Bihar-adjoining district Ballia, it was Akhilesh who had hectic day before the end of campaigning on Thursday addressing six rallies covering all seven constituencies as his one meeting was held on the borders of Sikharpur and Belthra Road constituencies. “It’s true that Rahul could not turn out here but we’re getting support of the Congress and the rush of people in Akhilesh’s meetings which were more impressive than that of Mayawati indicate the popularity of Akhilesh, who had done a lot for the district,” said Sarvdaman Jaiswal, an intellectual of Ballia.