Lucknow: The last two phases of elections in Uttar Pradesh will put Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav’s leadership skills to test. The decision he took immediately after becoming the president of Samajwadi Party two months ago will now have a direct bearing on the elections in these phases.
One of the major decisions that triggered off the war in the Samajwadi family was the merger of the Qaumi Ekta Dal (QED). The chief minister vehemently opposed the alliance and later denied tickets to the Ansari brother when he assumed the leadership of his party.
The Qaumi Ekta Dal has now merged into the BSP and Mukhtar Ansari, his son Abbas Ansari and brother Sigbatullah Ansari are now contesting on BSP tickets.
“We are upset with the Samajwadi Party for insulting us. It was the SP leaders who sought our support in the Rajya Sabha elections and then insisted on the merger. They should have sorted out these issues in the family first. Moreover, if Mr Akhilesh Yadav was so averse to us, why did he send his emissary to my father and uncle (both MLAs) to sign affidavits in his favour for the Election Commission?” asks Abbas Ansari who is contesting the Ghosi seat.
The QED president Afzal Ansari is intensively campaigning for the BSP and against the SP in about a dozen district of Uttar Pradesh. “The decision to keep the QED out of SP is going to boomerang on SP. If Akhilesh can campaign for the likes of Gayatri Prajapati, the Ansari brothers certainly have a better stature,” said a veteran SP leader.
Another decision taken by Mr Akhilesh Yadav was denying tickets to senior ministers Ambika Chaudhary, Narad Rai, Shadab Fatima, Vijay Misra and a dozen others. All these leaders are either campaigning for the BSP in their constituencies or not campaigning for SP.
It is perhaps because of these decisions that Samajwadi patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav did not campaign in the elections except for his brother Shivpal Yadav and daughter-in-law Aparna Yadav. Mulayam did not even visit Azamgarh, his own Parliamentary constituency. Mr Akhilesh Yadav on Tuesday held seven rallies in Azamgarh to make up for his father’s absence but the response, sources say, was ‘tepid’.
In final lap, BJP banks on allies to fight SP-Congress
The BJP, after criticising the SP-Congress alliance calling it as a sign of weakness, is now dependent on its two allies in the last phases of elections in Uttar Pradesh. The saffron party has given about 20 seats to Apna Dal (Anupriya) and Suheldev Bhartiya Samaj Party led by Om Prakash Rajbhar.
The Apna Dal, which is a Kurmi-centric party, has been given seats in Varanasi, Mirzapur, Sonebhadra, Siddhartha Nagar, Jaunpur that have a sizeable number of Kurmi votes. The Apna Dal (Anupriya faction) has proved its influence by achieving a 100 per cent success rate in the 2014 Lok Sabha election.
The undivided Apna Dal had contested two seats and won both. The party, which has now split into two, will face its first test in the last two phases of the assembly elections. Union minister Anupiya Patel will find her candidates pitted against those fielded by the rival faction, headed by her mother Krishna Patel.
Anupriya Patel, who is the MP from Mirzapur, had been appointed Union minister last year because the BJP wanted to consolidate its position among non-Yadav OBCs, led by Kurmis. The BJP has been projecting her as the OBC face of the government and her presence at the Prime Minister’s functions in eastern UP is proof of her growing stature.
The SBSP, has been given seats in Ghazipur, Varanasi, Mau, Ballia, Kushinagar, Jaunpur and Azamgarh. The SBSP, led by Om Prakash Rajbhar, claims to have the support of the Rajbhar community and has been politically active since 2005 but has not been able to win even a single seat either in Assembly or general elections.
