Lucknow: Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Akhilesh Yadav Tuesday dismissed his ally, the Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party’s (SBSP) suggestion that he should be open to an alliance with Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) leader Mayawati for the next Lok Sabha polls, saying that the SP did not need any advice from anyone.
“These days, politics is not what you see. At times, politics is operated from behind,” Akhilesh said when asked about differences with the SBSP at the launch of his party’s membership drive Tuesday.
He refrained from commenting on a possible alliance with the BSP, saying “anything can be harmful…The BJP had indulged in this [presidential election] campaign that someone from the BSP will become president. Now, the presidential election is also over,” he remarked.
When asked by ThePrint about the seeming discontent of SBSP chief O.P. Rajbhar, Akhilesh quipped that he could not do anything about someone being upset.
Rajbhar, whose party is part of the SP-led opposition alliance, had on 29 June said Akhilesh had become chief minister of Uttar Pradesh only by the grace of his father, former CM Mulayam Singh Yadav, and that his party had not won any election under his leadership since 2014.
The SBSP chief has also criticised Akhilesh for not campaigning for the Azamgarh and Rampur Lok Sabha bypolls.
Speaking to ThePrint, Rajbhar said he along with around 300 workers campaigned in Azamgarh, but the SP’s “army was fighting without a commander”. “I was there for 12 days… We kept fighting but the alliance partner was fighting without a commander. Who will win such a fight?” he asked.
“If he is not listening to our suggestions, that’s up to him. We sensed something on the ground and said that it (SP-BSP alliance) should happen. When both sides (SP-BSP) are saying the same things, then why are you (SP-BSP) misleading the backwards and Dalits,” he added.
Asked if Akhilesh and Mayawati could come together again after their tie-up failed to deliver results in the 2019 general election, Rajbhar said anything was possible in politics. “In 2019, when SP-BSP came together, nobody could believe that the parties of Mulayam Singh and Mayawati could join hands. Time and situations force people to make such decisions. When he (Akhilesh) compromised with the BSP as well as the Congress, was someone operating from behind that time?” he asked.
Also Read: Om Prakash Rajbhar leads in UP’s Zahoorabad, fighting off challenge from BJP’s Kalicharan
Miffed, but not out
Both the SP and the SBSP, however, seem to be in no hurry to end the alliance. While Akhilesh did not make any comment on the future of the partnership, Rajbhar conceded that his party was preparing to fight the general election with the SP.
“We are preparing to fight the Lok Sabha polls in partnership with the SP,” Rajbhar told ThePrint. “It depends on Akhilesh. The alliance continues as long as he wants. If he doesn’t, we won’t stay in the alliance. We fought to make Akhilesh the CM, thinking of him as our leader, considering him as our commander.”
Akhilesh, meanwhile, claimed foul play for the loss in Azamgarh and Rampur. “Once, we too had won the CM and deputy CM elections. It is not important how it happened. The power of administration, a free hand to the DM, phone calls to the pradhans, phone calls made to the BDC, zila panchayat members. Don’t you know how they (the BJP) have won the MLC polls?”
The SP chief maintained that his party leaders gave him feedback that his presence was not needed for the bypoll campaign. “We had faith in our organisation and public, but didn’t know that officials would not let our voters come out and vote… that they would offer temptations — money will be distributed, trucks of liquor will be sent, and if they vote, then something will happen.”
“If today, we say that our votes were cut, the Election Commission will say that it was our responsibility, but the SP voters were marked and their votes were cut on a large-scale. These agencies are being misused by the BJP,” he claimed.
Also Read: BJP breaches Samajwadi Party bastions Azamgarh and Rampur, Akhilesh Yadav left with three MPs