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Samajwadi Party’s Lok Sabha tally touches new low with defeat in bypolls
Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav, who took over the reins of the party in 2017, is likely to face a lot of criticism from within and outside the party, even from some alliance partners for not campaigning in the two constituencies —Azam Khan’s Rampur and Azamgarh
The Bharatiya Janata Party’s takeover of the two Samajwadi Party citadels of -Azamgarh and Rampur goes much beyond mere electoral embarrassment for the principal opposition party in Uttar Pradesh.
With these two seats gone, the Mulayam Singh Yadav-founded and Akhilesh Yadav-led SP’s tally of seats has now touched its all-time low in the Lok Sabha. The party now has just three members in the lower house of Parliament and the road to the 2024 Lok Sabha polls is unlikely to be smooth for it.
Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav, who took over the reins of the party in 2017, is likely to face a lot of criticism from within and outside the party, even from some alliance partners for not campaigning in the two constituencies —Azam Khan’s Rampur and Azamgarh, which had been won by him (Akhilesh) in 2019 and his father Mulayam in 2014.
Akhilesh has already faced muted criticism from his own party members and vocal remarks from his alliance partner Om Prakash Rajbhar (the chief of Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party).
Rajbhar camped in Azamgarh from June 6 till the end of the campaign for SP candidate Dharmendra Yadav.
Barely a week before going to Azamgarh, he had publically criticised Akhilesh Yadav for staying in “AC rooms and not venturing out in the sun”.
All was fine on Sunday till the SP candidates in Rampur and Azamgarh were either leading or trailing marginally through the day, but once the BJP’s victory became imminent, the most debated question was why Akhilesh did not campaign, or would the outcome have been different had he, Mulayam, Shivpal campaigned?
The top leaders who campaigned in bypolls from the SP camp were Rampur MLA Azam Khan, SP national general secretary Ramgopal Yadav, alliance partners Om Prakash Rajbhar (SBSP chief) and Jayant Chaudhary (Rashtriya Lok Dal chief).
The SP candidates had difficulty explaining why Akhilesh stayed away from the campaign.
After the defeat, Dharmendra Yadav, the SP’s Azamgarh candidate, said: “There must have been a reason or some strategy that he did not campaign. But it is not always necessary that the party president campaigns in bypolls. He is the party president and, in that capacity, he has a lot of work and engagements.”
Dharmendra Yadav lost the Azamgarh bypolls to BJP candidate Dinesh Lal Yadav ‘Nirahua’ by 8,679 votes.
Samajwadi Party candidate Mohd Asim Riyaz lost the election by 42,192 votes to BJP’s Ghanshyam Singh Lodhi in Rampur.
Samajwadi Party leaders blamed the “misuse of government machinery” for their loss.
Fakrul Hasan Chand, a spokesperson for the Samajwadi Party said: “It is well known that bypolls are the ruling party’s polls. Invariably, the ruling party wins. There must have been misuse of government machinery, doubts over EVMs (electronic voting machines) and preventing SP voters from coming out to vote.”
He, however, said: “The party will introspect, analyse where we went wrong and take corrective measures and will win the two seats again in the 2024 Lok Sabha general elections.”
Since Akhilesh took over the reins, the SP lost the 2017 and 2022 UP Assembly elections and the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.
The only silver lining was that the party won three Lok Sabha bypolls and one assembly seat in 2018. The BJP has already begun talking about winning 75 to 80 seats in the state in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls. Uttar Pradesh has 80 Lok Sabha seats.
