Lok Sabha elections 2019: Akhilesh Yadav inducts 2 more into UP Oppn alliance, says will squeeze BJP presence

Akhilesh Yadav said “these two leaders had helped whenever Samajwadi Party needed them and strengthened the socialist movement” but declined to go public with the arrangement.

Updated on: Apr 25, 2020, 06:55:16 IST

Hindustan Times, Lucknow | By Pankaj Jaiswal

Prefer HTon Google

Share via

Copy link

The Samajwadi Party (SP) on Tuesday expanded the Opposition alliance in Uttar Pradesh by announcing a tie-up with two more parties, the Janwadi Party (Socialist) and the Nirbal Indian Shoshit Hamara Aam Dal (Nishad) Party, for the national elections that begin from April 11.

Samajwadi Party (SP) president Akhilesh Yadav addressed a joint press conference along with Nishad Party president Sanjay Nishad, at SP office in Lucknow. (PTI photo)

The SP earlier joined hands with Mayawati’s Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and the Ajit Singh-led Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) in the state, which has the most number of Lok Sabha seats (80).

“I congratulate the two parties for joining the alliance,” SP chief and former Uttar Pradesh CM Akhilesh Yadav said at press conference along with Nishad Party founder Sanjay Nishad and Sanjay Singh Chauhan, the chief of Janwadi Party (Socialist). “These two leaders [Sanjay Nishad and Chauhan] helped us whenever we needed them,” Yadav said.

In the last year’s Gorakhpur Lok Sabha bypoll, Sanjay Nishad’s son, Praveen Kumar Nishad, contested on an SP ticket and wrested the seat from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) after 30 years. “This time, I will leave it to Akhilesh Yadav to decide the role that my party will play,” Sanjay Nishad said. Chauhan said that the BJP was “conspiring” to take away the rights of backward classes. “All backwards are with Akhilesh’s alliance,” he said.

The BJP maintained that the alliance won’t hurt its prospects. “All can join hands but it won’t matter. Modi’s tsunami will sweep them away,” BJP spokesperson Navin Srivastava said.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Pankaj Jaiswal
Pankaj Jaiswal is Bureau Chief, Uttar Pradesh. He covers-analyses politics, and assists Hindustan Times reporters across the state. He has 30 years of experience in print media reporting. Based in Lucknow, he started his journalism career at a national English daily in Kanpur after graduating from Christ Church College. He joined Hindustan Times, Lucknow edition, as part of the launch team in 1997. He’s covered everything from rural distress to science, environment, wildlife, and crime. He has travelled extensively in Uttar Pradesh for rural, development, political, and election reporting. His continued interest in rural issues, rural distress, and development journalism has fetched him a handful of prestigious awards and fellowships. Pankaj is a photojournalist too. He clinched the Statesman Award for Rural Reporting—First Prize in 2009 and Third Prize in 2006—for exposing Bundelkhand’s devastating drought and distress: crop failures, farm suicides, migration, debt, and the injustice of meagre compensation cheques between Rs 10 and Rs 20 to farmers by the government from crop loss. He also has been awarded with Hindustan Times internal 'Journalist of the Month' citation over half a dozen times. His relentless reporting in Hindustan Times pulled the Bundelkhand crisis out of obscurity and forced it into the national spotlight, prompting media and government action on one of India’s most neglected regions. Over a decade, he filed hundreds of hard-hitting stories, travelling repeatedly from Lucknow deep into Bundelkhand. He also received the Special Mention KC Kulish International Award 2009. Pankaj also did long-haul political reporting on the most intense political family feud—’The Yadav Family Feud’—between 2016 and 2022.Read More