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2024 LS polls: Looking for a turnaround, SP keeps fingers crossed
The 2024 Lok Sabha result day is crucial for the Samajwadi Party as Akhilesh Yadav-led party seeks a turnaround, dismissing exit polls in favor of the INDIA bloc.
The result day of the 2024 Lok Sabha polls will be crucial for the Samajwadi Party (SP) as Akhilesh Yadav-led party is desperately looking for a turnaround.
On the eve of counting day, the SP chief held a press conference—his first one since seven-phase polling ended—dismissing all exit polls that predicted majority for the BJP-led ruling NDA and saying: “The INDIA bloc’s victory will be the victory of the country and its people”.
Ever since Akhilesh Yadav took over the reigns of the party in 2017, it has been looking for a victory that has been eluding it. The party also lost power in Uttar Pradesh that year. Ever since, elections after elections, it has been trying to defeat the BJP. Although, the SP could not win, it remained the principal opposition party in the state.
And being the principal opposition party, it was Akhilesh Yadav who took over the mantle of the INDIA bloc alliance’s chief architect. Those who followed the political developments closely would remember that the SP had given an ultimatum to the Congress over the seat sharing formula that the SP had finalised.
Eventually, the SP had its way. Of the 80 Lok Sabha seats in U.P., the SP gave 17 to the Congress. So Tuesday will also be the day to see the outcome of the INDIA bloc alliance between the two parties and how much did it help the SP?
Before this in the equal partnership with the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) in the 2019 LS polls, the SP ended up a loser while the BSP had gained substantially. The SP could not cross its previous tally of 5 in the last polls while the BSP that had won no seats in 2014 took a quantum leap and won 10 seats.
This is Akhilesh’s fourth election since he took over the party in 2017—two assembly polls and two Lok Sabha election. The SP contested all the four polls in alliances. In the 2017 U.P. assembly polls, the SP allied with the Congress, in 2019 LS polls with the BSP, in 2022 UP assembly polls only with the regional smaller parties and now with the Congress under INDIA bloc.
Apart from the test of SP’s alliance politics, there’s a bigger formula—the much touted PDA—Picchda, Dalit, Alpsankhyak—whose efficacy would be decided. The PDA together is known to comprise more than 80% of U.P.’s population. While most political observers say that A (Alpsankhyak or minorities ) this time went with the SP, the fight was fierce for the backwards and Dalit votes between the INDIA bloc and the NDA.
The country would also eagerly watch the fate of five Yadavs (all members of a family) in the poll fray from the Samajwadi Party side. They are Akhilesh himself, his wife and Mainpuri MP Dimple Yadav and three of Akhilesh’s cousins.
Of the state 80 Lok Sabha seats, the BJP with allies won 64 seats in 2019, while the SP-BSP alliance had won 15 seats (SP 5 and BSP 10) and the Congress had bagged only one.
