Akhilesh beyond Yadavs: How SP leader stitched victory in Uttar Pradesh

After repeated defeats in Lok Sabha and Assembly since 2014, he spent months selecting candidates for parliamentary polls and struck an alliance with the Congress

A rarely remembered contribution to denting the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)’s seats tally in Uttar Pradesh (UP) in May 2004 and the formation of a Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government at the Centre was that of the late Mulayam Singh Yadav. Two decades later, with the Samajwadi Party (SP) likely to get more seats than the BJP in India’s most populous state, his son and political successor, Akhilesh Yadav, has accomplished a similar feat and stalled the BJP’s march to a third successive full majority government at the Centre.

Two decades ago, Mulayam stitched a patchwork of Other Backward Castes (OBCs) and canvassed indefatigably across UP, which had the SP’s Mandal defeat the BJP’s Kamandal. The BJP won a mere 10 out of UP’s 80 seats, and managed 138 nationwide, seven short of the Congress’ 145.

In the summer of 2024, Akhilesh took a leaf out of his father’s playbook. After suffering repeated defeats at the hands of the BJP in the Lok Sabha and Assembly polls in UP since 2014, Akhilesh spent months deciding upon the candidates for parliamentary polls and struck an alliance with the Congress that has benefitted both the parties – marked by better synergy among the respective cadres of these two parties than in the 2017 Assembly polls. Of the 62 seats it contested in UP, the SP, under Akhilesh, fielded only five Yadavs, including himself from Kannauj, his wife Dimple from Mainpuri and his cousins. The rest were drawn from Scheduled Castes and OBCs, rehabilitating some who had earlier contested and won on BJP tickets.

In Robertsganj, a constituency reserved for Scheduled Castes, the SP fielded Chhotelal Kharwar, who had won on a BJP ticket in 2014. From Mirzapur, the SP fielded Ramesh Chand Bind, who was a BJP MP from the nearby Bhadohi in 2019. Afzal Ansari, the BSP’s Ghazipur MP, was inducted in the SP. In Faizabad, which was at the heart of the BJP’s Hindutva push after the ‘pran pratishtha’ of Rama’s idol in the Ram temple in Ayodhya, the SP fielded Awadhesh Prasad, a Scheduled Caste leader, in a ‘general’ seat against the BJP’s Lallu Singh. Akhilesh’s fielding candidates from a broad spectrum of castes, not just Yadavs, and with the BJP losing in several seats in Purvanchal, suggests that smaller OBC communities shifted from the BJP to the SP in the region.

Under Akhilesh, the SP also reached out to the Dalits by galvanising its Ambedkar Vahini. He instructed his party’s rank and file to not malign the Bahujan Samaj Party and its chief Mayawati even when she parted ways with the SP after their alliance in 2019. Along with Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, he flagged how the BJP, if it were to win a huge majority, might amend the Constitution, a narrative that found acceptance among the Dalits. The BSP has drawn a blank and its vote share has declined. Political observers believe some of the BSP’s support base have voted for the SP-Congress alliance in UP. Akhilesh stressed on ‘PDA’, an abbreviation to describe Pichchde (backward classes), Dalits and Alpsankhyak (minorities) appears to have worked for the party. The party's performance also indicates a strong support from the state's Muslims, a substantial chunk of the total. Ahead of the election, Akhilesh forged a rapprochement with uncle Shivpal Singh Yadav, whose son contested the LS polls.