With the lalu Yadav- Nitish Kumar alliance romping home in the Bihar polls with elan, there has been growing clamour among Samajwadi Party ranks for mending fences with secular grand alliance.
Senior leaders have conveyed to the party brass that the issue at stake was not only to protect the home turf of UP at the 2017 Assembly polls, but also to ensure due stature of the Samajwadi Party within the anti-Modi political alternative likely to take shape in the coming months.
While the SP could net only a meagre one per cent votes in the 146 seats it contested, a major relief for it was the rout of Asaduddin Owaisi-led All India Majlis Ittehadul Musalmeen (AIMIM) in the Muslim-dominated Seemanchal of Bihar. All six candidates of MIM were decimated. The outfit was threatening to eat into the Muslim vote bank of the SP in west and east UP.
Despite being a regional party, as per Election Commission of India, the SP fancies itself as a national party. After the Bihar debacle, the concern has arisen at two levels in the party —one, the party is anxious to protect its image as vanguard of secularism and its stature in the secular bandwagon and two, is the anxiety of the pary cadre vius a vis the party’s fate in the 2017 UP Assembly elections.
Party insiders said, “Parting company with the grand alliance in Bihar sent a very negative signal to the minorities. The need of the hour is to send a categoric message that it remains committed for the cause of secularism and downplay the impression developed in the past months that the SP was soft on the BJP.’’
Besides, the party has not only to retain its flock of social coalition intact but also to beef it up among the minorities ahead of the 2017 polls. A senior leader said that the praise of PM Narendra Modi by Mulayam Singh, his assertion of BJP sweeping Bihar polls and casting aspersions on secular credentials of Nitish Kumar has disillusioned the minority somewhat, which has to be rectified as soon as possible.
A former MP said, “Nothing is lost, Mulayam Singh Yadav should speak to both Nitish Kumar and lalu Yadav and explain his stance and circumstances that led the SP to opt out of the alliance.’’ The SP leader maintained, “Had we been part of the alliance, the SP would have won all seven seats in Bihar like the Congress did and hitched its tally from four in 2010 to 27 in 2015 in Bihar Assembly.’’
The former MP also suggested that if Mulayam Singh was serious about reviving the party after the Bihar debacle, then he should shun family attachments and promote serious political persons in the frontline of the leadership.
Former minister Ambika Chowdhary who was dropped from the cabinet in recent cabinet reshuffle said, “Undoubtedly, Nitish Kumar has emerged as a hero of the secular forces, yet Mulayam Singh’s contribution to the cause cannot be wished away.”