Express News Service
LUCKNOW: The move by Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav to sacrifice his Lok Sabha membership – to retain his Assembly seat in order to remain active in state politics – is seen as an attempt to keep his party’s vote bank intact and project it as the only alternative to the BJP in Uttar Pradesh.
On the other, his move also poses a challenge to other opposition parties including Mayawati-led Bahujan Samaj Party and the Congress which are losing even the opposition space rapidly in the state.
In the recently concluded UP Assembly election, while BJP returned to power with over two-third majority securing 273 seats, SP emerged as the major opposition with 125 seats along with its allies. However, BSP, which ruled the Hindi heartland for four times under Mayawati, and Congress which helmed the state unchallenged till 1989 stand completely decimated with just one and two MLAs respectively in the 18th Assembly.
Interestingly, Akhilesh’s move of quitting Lok Sabha took political pundits by surprise. In 2017, after he lost power to the BJP winning just 47 seats, Akhilesh was holding the membership of UP Legislative Council. He remained in the council till May 2018 when his term ended but he appointed party leader Ahmad Hassan as the Leader of Opposition. However, in the follow through, the SP chief won 2019 Lok Sabha elections from Azamgarh.
Given his 2017 stand, the political experts in 2022 were of the view that he would prefer Lok Sabha seat to Assembly as quitting it will bring down the number of SP MPs to four in the lower house of Parliament. But both Akhiesh and Azam Khan resigned, bringing the party’s tally to just three in Lok Sabha.
