New Delhi: For the past few months, Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) supremo Mayawati has been highly miffed with the Samajwadi Party and its president Akhilesh Yadav. Mayawati has been continuously attacking Akhilesh and Samajwadi Party on Twitter and at her press conferences.
Mayawati and Akhilesh fought the 2019 Lok Sabha elections together. However, the SP-BSP alliance failed to spell any magic on the public and could not prevent the BJP from winning 62 of total 80 seats. More so over, the alliance turned out to be a doomed relationship as it was called off by the BSP supremo barely two weeks after the general assembly election results were declared.
Meanwhile, political experts in Uttar Pradesh believe that the BSP benefited the most from the alliance of SP and BSP. The BSP, which scored a duck in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, captured at least 10 Lok Sabha seats in 2019. However, the Samajwadi Party could not get any benefit out of the alliance as it was reduced to just 5 seats.
Ever since the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, Mayawati has been directly attacking Akhilesh Yadav in her press conferences. However, Akhilesh has so far refrained from replying to her. In fact, every time the SP president is questioned about the attacks launched by Mayawati on him, he chooses to avoid the question smartly, stating that he holds a lot of respect for her. Such statements by Akhilesh raise questions about why the Samajwadi Party is still maintaining a soft stand on Mayawati when the latter has been no stone unturned in carrying out political attacks on it.
Experts believe that the answer could be the 21% Dalit vote bank of Uttar Pradesh. Akhilesh Yadav has probably set his eyes on BSP's Dalit Vote Bank. Ever since the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, as many as 30 bigwigs of BSP have switched sides and joined the Samajwadi Party. As per political experts, Akhilesh feels that the Dalit vote bank, which is against the BJP, can favour them in the elections, and hence, neither Akhilesh nor his party has been saying anything against Mayawati.
7 BSP MLAs, who have turned rebels and met Akhilesh Yadav, are expected to join the Samajwadi Party in the coming days.
1. Aslam Raini (Bhinga, Shravasti)
2. Aslam Ali (Dhaulana, Hapur)
3. Mujtaba Siddiqui (Pratappur, Prayagraj)
4. Hakim Lal Bind (Handiya, Prayagraj)
5. Hargovind Bhargava (Sidhauli Sitapur)
6. Sushma Patel (Mundra Badshahpur, Jaunpur)
7. Vandana Singh (Sagadi Azamgarh)
Big names of BSP who have joined Samajwadi Party since 2019:
1. Inderjit Saroj, Kaushambi
2. Ramprasad Choudhary, Basti
3. Arvind Choudhary, former MP, Basti
4. Tribhuvan Dutt, Ambedkarnagar
5. Ambika Choudhary, Ballia
6. RK Chaudhary, Mohanlalganj
7. CL Verma, Lucknow
8. KK Gautam, Lucknow
9. Sunita Verma, Meerut
10. Yogesh Verma, Meerut
11. Amarpal Sharma, former BSP MLA
12. Dharampal Singh, former MLA, Agra
13. Vidya Choudhary, Azamgarh
14. Virendra Singh, Varanasi
15. Dayaram Pal, former president of UP BSP, Azamgarh
16. Mithilal, Mau
17. Baleshwar Yadav, Kushinagar
18. Amarpal Sharma, former MLA Sahibabad
19. Kamlesh Gupta, Handia, Prayagraj
20. Bacchu Nishad, Agra
21. Anees Ahmed, Bareilly
22. Zameer Ulla, Former MLA, Aligarh
23. Awadhesh Verma, Former Minister, Shahjahanpur
24. Vijaypal, Ex-MLA, Bareilly
25. Kalicharan Rajbhar, former MLA, Zahoorabad, Ghazipur
26. Jai Narayan Tiwari, Sultanpur
27. Former IPS Gurbachan Lal, Puwayan, Shahjahanpur
28. Asif Khan Babbu, Former MLA, Shahabad, Hardoi
29. Nasrina Bano, Municipal Chairman, Shahabad, Hardoi
30. Mahesh Arya, Former MLC, National General Secretary, Firozabad
31. Umesh Pandey, Mau
32. Raghunath Prasad Shankhwar, Kanpur-Lucknow
33. Kailash Nath Yadav, Ghazipur
34. Rajendra Kumar, former cabinet minister, Mau
35. Parshuram Nishad, Maharajganj-Gorakhpur
36. Vishwanath and Anand Nishad, Gorakhpur
37. Gangaram Pal, Bhognipur, Kanpur Dehat
38. Prabhu Dayal Chauhan, Maharajganj
39. Tilakchandra Ahirwar, former MLA, Jhansi
40. Fernlal Ahirwar, former MLA, Lalitpur
41. Anil Ahirwar, former MLA, Rath
42. Masood Alam, Gonda
It would be interesting to see how these political developments play out in the upcoming assembly polls.
