Shedding the shadow of his father and founder of Samajwadi Party Mulayam Singh Yadav, Akhilesh Yadav has taken the party to a new height, emerging as the third largest party of the country.
According to the poll results announced by the Election Commission of India in Uttar Pradesh, the SP has performed best in its history so far in the Lok Sabha elections by winning 37 seats.
In 2004, the SP had won 35 Lok Sabha seats which was the highest ever before the 2024 tally of 37 seats .
Political analysts say that SP got this success due to the strategy of caste mobilization instead of religious issues and low stakes on Yadavs and Muslims.
The SP had fought the last Lok Sabha elections of 2019 in alliance with BSP. Then, they won only five seats.
This time, SP president Akhilesh Yadav led the opposition’s campaign in politically important UP and contested elections on 62 seats under the alliance. It gave 17 seats to Congress and one seat to Trinamool Congress. This strategy of seat sharing apparently proved quite effective.
It was believed that due to this partnership, the SP was successful in giving a psychological message to the voters that there is an alternative to the BJP at the national level.
In the 2019 elections, former cabinet minister Shivpal Singh was the only one who broke away from SP, but this time a good message was also sent by the unity of the family. The SP took full care of its PDA formula (‘Pichde -backward classes or OBCs, Dalits, ‘Alpasankhyak’ -minorities) while deciding the candidates.
More candidates from the Kurmi community were fielded than the Yadavs and Muslims, who are considered their vote base. General caste candidates including Brahmins and Thakurs were also given representation.
Political analysts claim that this move of Akhilesh was absolutely correct and yielded unexpected success. Akhilesh kept himself and the party away from the controversial statements of Swami Prasad Maurya.
In a very polite manner, he did not give any direct reaction at the consecration of Ram temple. Not only this, he started the construction of a huge temple in Etawah. Due to this, the BJP did not get a chance to corner him on religious issues, they claim.