Is Akhilesh reluctant to join Bharat Jodo? SP chief ‘wants to avoid talk of Congress alliance’

SP hasn't always benefited from alliances with larger parties. Hence, Akhilesh wishes to not be seen with Congress. SP ally RLD’s Jayant Chaudhary won't join Rahul's yatra either.

File photo of Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav | PTI

Lucknow: Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Akhilesh Yadav is reluctant to join Rahul Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo Yatra because he doesn’t want to be seen with the Congress ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, multiple SP leaders have told ThePrint.

The Congress in Uttar Pradesh has invited prominent opposition leaders, including Yadav’s ally, Rashtriya Lok Dal’s (RLD) Jayant Chaudhary, to take part in the yatra from when it enters the state on 3 January. The RLD, though, has made it clear that Chaudhary will not be able to join the yatra since he will not be in the state at the time.

“Ek kahaawat hai, ‘Chandukhane ki gupp’ (there’s an idiom, there will be idle gossip)… we support the Bharat Jodo Yatra in spirit, but the question is, who will remove the BJP (from power)?” Yadav told reporters Tuesday, avoiding a direct reply to questions about whether he will join the yatra.

According to SP chief spokesperson Rajendra Chaudhary, several programmes of the party have already been scheduled and they can’t comment on the likelihood of that schedule changing. He, however, refused to comment on the possibility of the SP chief joining the yatra.

Speaking to ThePrint, an SP leader said the party doesn’t want to trigger any talk of an alliance with the Congress. “Party chief Akhilesh Yadav has commented in the past that the party will ally with smaller parties as its experience with larger parties has not been good,” he said.

Apart from SP’s Akhilesh and RLD’s Jayant, the Congress has invited other prominent opposition leaders for the UP leg of Bharat Jodo — these include Akhilesh’s uncle Shivpal Yadav; Bahujan Samaj Party’s (BSP) Mayawati and Satish Chandra Misra; Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party (SBSP) chief O.P. Rajbhar; and Communist Party of India’s (CPI) national secretary Atul Kumar Anjaan, among others.

‘Big parties have big expectations, but their delivery is low’

According to SP sources, the party leadership is of the view that it had not benefited from alliance with larger parties while the bigger parties have benefited from the SP’s support base.

“If you look at the party’s performance in 2017 assembly elections, you would remember how the Congress got 105 seats as part of the alliance and won only seven seats,” the SP leader quoted above said.

In the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, too, while the SP managed to transfer its votes to the BSP with which it had allied, the vice-versa did not happen, maintain SP leaders. The SP had won five seats but its vote share had decreased from the 2014 polls. The BSP, meanwhile, won 10 seats — up from zero in 2014 polls — emerging as the biggest gainer from the SP-BSP mahagathbandhan.

The Congress had won only one Lok Sabha seat then.

“Big parties have bigger expectations but their delivery is low. The SP may refrain from joining hands with the Congress in the Lok Sabha polls this time,” the SP leader said.

A close aide of RLD’s Jayant Chaudhary told ThePrint that he will arrive in UP on 4 January and, hence, will not be participating in the Rahul-led yatra.

RLD’s national spokesperson Mohammad Islam told ThePrint his schedule is already fixed and “his joining the yatra will hence be difficult. We, however, extend our best wishes to the Congress for the yatra,” he said.

(Edited by Zinnia Ray Chaudhuri)