New Delhi/Lucknow: Possibilities of Mr Akhilesh Yadav creating history by becoming the first Chief Minister to get a second consecutive term in nearly three decades in Uttar Pradesh sunk without a trace.
Yet, unlike Ms Mayawati, one cannot write the political obituary of Mr Akhilesh Yadav with ground reports showing that the young leader enjoys widespread goodwill in his state.
However, Mr Akhilesh Yadav, who had emerged the boss of his party after a bitter battle with his father Mulayam Singh Yadav and his uncle Shivpal Yadav, failed to encash this goodwill into votes.
This was the party’s worst performance in 25 years of its existence. The SP had won 224 seats in 2012 when Mr Akhilesh Yadav was made chief minister.
Sources in the SP said the two key factors which could have contributed to the rout were the tie-up with Congress and the bitter factional fight with Mr Shivpal Yadav, who is seen to be a strong grassroots leader.
The Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister had fought the elections on the development plank and ran a media blitzkrieg showcasing his government's achievements, which included promises of free laptops and smartphones. But the people seem to have decided it was too little too late.
Apparently many of his voters could not accept the way he sidelined Mr Mulayam Singh Yadav and Mr Shivpal Yadav and took over the reigns of the party. Moreover, the new SP president’s decision to deny tickets to his father’s loyalists and forge an alliance with the Congress also disturbed the party cadres.
Mr Akhilesh Yadav, who handed over his resignation after the humiliating defeat, said that the BJP had won by “misleading” the voters and sided with BSP chief Mayawati who raised questions over EVMs. “I think in a democracy you get vote not by samjhana (making people understand) but by behkana (misguiding),” he told a press conference here. “There were massive crowds in my rallies. I did not expect such a thing will happen. I hope the next government will work better than SP government. The people might not have liked my expressway and they voted for the bullet train,” he said.
Even as he accepted the verdict of the people, Mr Akhilesh Yadav said: “I will do analysis at the booth level. I will accept the responsibility after analysing the reasons of the defeat at booth level.”
