Political challenges are mounting for Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav following the crushing defeat of his party candidates in the by-polls to Azamgarh and Rampur parliamentary constituencies followed by the loss of the post of leader of opposition in UP Legislative Council.
The dissension in the SP-led alliance which saw Suheldev Bhartiya Samaj Party (SBSP) almost moving out of the group ahead of the presidential election seems to have further aggravated the situation for Akhilesh Yadav.
The Samajwadi Party failed to retain the leader of opposition post in the UP Legislative Council after its tally dropped to less than 10 per cent of the strength of the upper House.
The party has been steadily losing ground to the Bharatiya Janata Party in Uttar Pradesh since the 2014 general election. It has lost three elections since then -- assembly polls in 2017 and 2022 and the 2019 general election. The SP had managed to create the perception that it had emerged as the clear challenger to the ruling party in a bi-polar contest in 2022, but it was left far behind the magic number.
Earlier this month, the SP dissolved its national, state and district executive bodies, and various frontal organisations. The shock defeats to BJP candidates in its strongholds, Rampur and Azamgarh, in the recent Lok Sabha bypolls may have forced the party’s hand: The SP lost the Rampur Lok Sabha seat in a straight contest while the BJP benefited from a multi-cornered contest in Azamgarh, a seat won by Akhilesh Yadav in 2019.
Political analysts feel that the crisis in the SP goes well beyond organisational issues and it needs to be addressed more fundamentally.
“The party has found it difficult to shake off its political opponents’ attack particularly on two counts -- one, patronising candidates with criminal records and, two, leaning on two communities, Yadavs and Muslims, and one family, the Mulayam Singh Yadav parivar,” said one analyst.
Moreover, the analyst said, even after over two decades of experience in electoral politics and over five years after taking over as the party president, Akhilesh Yadav is yet to learn the art of electoral politics of firing the imagination of the people and giving a distinct political identity to his politics and his party.
“The Samajwadi Party, under the leadership of Akhilesh Yadav, has failed to retain the best traditions of the old SP. Mulayam Singh Yadav was trained in the Lohia school of agitational politics and worked his way up while Akhilesh was directly anointed as heir to high office and the party,” the analyst said.
SBSP chief Om Prakash Rajbhar, after the Samajwadi Party’s defeat in Azamgarh and Rampur, had sarcastically commented that “Akhilesh Yadav should come out of the comfortable environs of air-conditioned room and hit the ground,” However Akhilesh Yadav, instead of hitting the streets, hit back at Om Prakash Rajbhar by not inviting the SBSP chief for the dinner hosted this week in the honour of opposition presidential candidate Yashwant Sinha.
“The SP has raced ahead of all opposition parties in UP, but it will require more than cosmetic organisational changes to catch up with the BJP,” the analyst said.