AKHILESH YADAV HAS EMERGED AS THE MOST SUCCESSFUL LEADER OF INDIA BLOC IN LOK SABHA POLLS

General election results in India have always been extraordinary and have thrown new set of political leaders. This year’s polls while were a moral victory for the INDIA bloc and marked the setback to communal politics, it also threw two young leaders, Rahul Gandhi and Akhilesh Yadav, in public arena who exhibited rare
wisdom of taking on the rightist and communal forces head on and defeating them convincingly in the battle field. Their gains are of paramount importance for the reason that they could accomplish their mission at a time when most of the master-politicians, leaders of the people, had preferred to play safe and refrain from confronting Narendra Modi, who is acting as the mascot of the communal forces in the country.

The victory of the INDIA alliance in Uttar Pradesh has been a landmark triumph as these leaders have come to personify the aspirations and ambitions of the backward classes, Dalits, and minorities in the State. It is indeed a tough task to compare and contrast them. While Rahul is perceived as the new ideologue of the secular, democratic and centrist forces, Akhilesh is being attributed as the architect of the new front of the poor, backwards, proletariats and Dalits.

This is clearly embedded in his observation “victory is a testament to the power of the PDA (Pichda, Dalit, and Alpsankhyak) strategy. He wrote on X “it is a landmark victory of the trust reposed by the Dalit-Bahujan community which, along with the backward classes, minorities, tribals and all the neglected, oppressed and
exploited sections, along with prodemocratic forces who fought shoulder-to-shoulder to save the Constitution which gives them the right to equality, respect, dignified life and reservation”.

Surprisingly, Akhilesh was written off as a major challenger to authoritarianism and communalism, by most of the political analysts. He had to face bitter criticism for his over reliance on his Yadav supporters. In fact in 2022 assembly election of the state, he had ignored the suggestions of his supporters and friends to rope in the Dalits and proletariats. Akhilesh had to face ridicule from senior leaders, even from BSP chef Mayawati of despising Dalits. Some of the Dalit leaders who were with Samajwadi Party nevertheless
deserted it during the 2022 assembly elections.

Prominent dalit face O P Rajbhar shifted his loyalty to BJP accusing Akhilesh of not respecting dalit
sentiment. Just ahead of it, while talks for seat sharing between anti-BJP parties were going on, the emerging young dalit face Chandrashekar Azad aka Ravan, walked out as Akhilesh was unwilling to concede his demand. The alliance between Azad and Akhilesh did not clique. Akhilesh and Chandrashekar had to call off the alliance. Though SP cadres and leaders ridiculed him for walking out of the alliance , he triumphed
in his lone crusade against BJP and won by more than 3 lakh votes.

Muslims of UP were also maintaining distance from Akhilesh for his not giving due respect to senior SP leader Azam Khan. The situation for Akhilesh took a turn for better only after Rahul Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra entered UP. Akhilesh could comprehend the need for changing his electoral strategy. His accompanying Rahul in Nyay Yatra simply reinforced the truth. It is worth recalling that even while opposition leaders were having meetings and confabulations for evolving INDIA bloc, Akhilesh would project his Pichde, Dalit and Alpasankhyak platform as the only visible alternative.

But after Rahul’s strategic entry into UP politics and his ideological approach having valid takers, Akhilesh gave priority to electoral concept of INDIA. He combined ‘Pichde (backward), Dalit, Alpasankhyak (minorities)’ idea with a focus on farmer issues, joblessness, paper leaks and rising prices and caught the imagination of the people. It turned out to be best poll strategy at that moment.

Dalits constitute 21 per cent of the state’s population and have hundreds of sub castes; of them, the Jatavs form the largest group with 11-15 per cent. The Jatavs, a more politically conscious group, have been loyal to BSP and its leader “Dalit ki Beti”, as Mayawati identified herself. They had shifted their allegiance to BJP
as they were feeling hurt at Mayawati diluting BR Ambedkar’s, mission the emancipation of the oppressed
classes.

The change of electoral strategy and issue of representation of the Dalits and other 90 per cent of the poor in governance which was systematically raised by Rahul fundamentally altered the political scenario and priorities for Akhilesh on the eve of the Lok Sabha polls. In the wake of this realization, Akhilesh worked out
fresh social realignment and roped in Dalits and other backwards. The Yadavs who had antagonistic
relations with Dalits and other backward castes were relegated in the priority list.

While Akhilesh gave five seats to Yadavs that too belonging to his own family, he fielded 27 candidates from non-Yadav OBC castes. Nine of them were given to Kurmis, four to Nishads and 6 to Maurya-Kushwaha-Shakya caste conglomerate. Besides 17 Dalit candidates in reserved constituencies, Akhilesh made a
symbolic gesture by fielding two more Dalit candidates from general constituencies. The seatwise results show that this strategy clicked. Awadhesh Prasad in Faizabad, fielded as the SP’s Dalit face, managed to attract most of the 24% Dalit votes in the constituency and defeated the BJP in the land of Ayodhya.

Akhilesh also fielded 11 upper-caste candidates (four Brahmins, two Thakurs, two Vaishyas, and three from other upper castes). The SP-led INDIA bloc in U.P. put up an impressive performance by winning 43 out of the State’s 80 Lok Sabha seats with the SP alone securing 37 seats and the Congress emerging victorious on six. The outcome was a major dent to the image of Narendra Modi who had sought votes by offering guarantees on his image and name. BJP could manage to win 36 seats and its allies Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) got two seats and Apna Dal (Soneylal) one.

The issues raised by Rahul also helped Samajwadi Party in shattering the hypothesis that Dalits and Yadavs can never unite in UP. As per caste assessments based on exit polls, 65 per cent of Scheduled Caste votes polled went to the SP; an increase of 21 per cent as compared to 2019 polls. Of these, 32 per cent were Jatav votes. Resounding victory of INDIA in Uttar Pradesh will undoubtedly have a major impact on the other
Hindi speaking states as also on the state assembly polls in 2027.

Akhilesh Yadav has already shown signs of his shifting his focus to national politics by retaining his Kannauj Lok Sabha seat from where he emerged victorious in the Lok Sabha elections. It was earlier said that he would prefer to keep the assembly seat and resign the Lok Sabha seat. His decision to move to national politics has two major implications: he would look for a nationwide space to operate and second with the possibility of Modi government bowing out of power in near future, the INDIA bloc would come to power. In that backdrop, he may emerge as a prominent national leader, which will help him to keep the political
operations in UP under his watch.

The caste combination and structure in Bihar will not be amenable to Akhilesh. While Yadavs and Muslims are solidly behind RJD of Lalu Yadav, the dalits, OBCs, EBCs and mahadalits are with JD(U) and CPI(ML). At least this election has rendered a significant service to Akhilesh. Political circle is abuzz with the murmuring that if there is one leader who learnt the right lessons from this election and his company with Rahul, it is
Akhilesh. Instead of focusing on petty issues, Akhilesh has learnt the art of combining state level issues with the national issues.

This will help him broaden his support base. Rahul and Akhilesh have succeeded in projecting Constitution as the identity symbol of Dalits and poor of the country. Their messages for job creation and implementation of reservation — proportionate to the population (“Jitni aabadi, utna haq”)—has caught the imagination of the poor , Dalits and common people. The combination of Akhilesh and Rahul can be considered as a bombshell in national politics of the country having potential to eliminate the third time Prime Minister
Narendra Modi even before he completes his tenure in 2029.