A successful idea, such as the stunning Bihar result, has its potential imitators. This can be said of Uttar Pradesh chief minister Akhilesh Yadav, who recently suggested the likelihood (or is it desirability?) of a Bihar-style anti-BJP front emerging in his state where Assembly election is due in 2017.
It is not known if the CM’s thinking in this matter is endorsed by the super-CM, the Samajwadi Party founder-leader Mulayam Singh Yadav, who will ultimately call the shots. Besides, in case the CM’s exuberance is not getting the better of him, UP’s ruling SP has to make clear if its politics here on is going to be aimed against the ruling party at the Centre, whose ambition for UP is running high.
That’s not been the case for some time, in Parliament or outside. In fact, the senior Yadav had walked out of Bihar’s mahagathbandhan days before voting although he had been named its leader, provoking comment that his purpose was to comfort the BJP, in particular Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
For reasons of sharing potential social bases of support, Uttar Praedsh’s SP has been suspicious of the Congress, more so after the latter walked away with nearly as many MPs in the 2009 Lok Sabha election in the state as the SP, and the BSP, UP’s other big player led by Mayawati who also nurses the ambition to be Prime Minister. Unlike Bihar, the field in UP is crowded. But there is some time to go and politics can potentially be re-arranged.
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