Will Akhilesh continue as SP chief after UP debacle?

Less than 24 hours of the ruling Samajwadi Party (SP) being voted out of power by BJP aided by a virtual ‘Modi tsunami’, dissents have already started to question the continuation of Akhilesh Yadav as the party president after the Uttar Pradesh poll rout.

The SP booked a humiliating loss with its seats dropping from 224 in 2012 to 47 in 2017.

The party had put behind a bitter power feud before the UP poll process, hoping to retain power in the most crucial state.

In backdrop of power struggle, SP president Mulayam Singh Yadav was removed from his post and was replaced by his son and UP chief minister Akhilesh Yadav.

Later, Mulayam’s younger brother Shivpal Singh Yadav and his aides was also sidelined. Several ministers were denied poll tickets, including Ambika Chaudhary, Narad Rai and Vijay Mishra.

Talking to a news channel, SP legislator and Mulayam’s confidante Madhukar Jaitley today said Mulayam was the founding president of SP and his honour be restored. Without taking any names, he observed in politics, a leader is responsible for both win and defeat.

Another Mulayam’s confidante, Dr C P Rai has advised Akhilesh to honour his own words and restore ‘Netaji’ as the party president. Before UP polling, Akhilesh had declared he wanted to UP election and then hand over the party reins to his father and displaced party president, Mulayam.

Yesterday, Shivpal, commenting on loss, had noted it was not the loss of the socialist party, but of arrogance, hinting at Akhilesh, who had been running the party rather arbitrarily alongside his cousin uncle Ram Gopal Yadav.

However, Akhilesh never anticipated SP would be voted out of power and he would face such humiliating defeat even after tying up with Congress to stop the Modi juggernaut, although both Mulayam and Shivpal had spoken against the alliance.

In the end, SP and Congress could win only 47 and 7 seats this time compared to their 2012 tally of 224 and 28 respectively. BJP, against its tally of 48 in 2012, secured 325 seats of the total 403 assembly seats, their best poll performance ever in UP.

Meanwhile, things would only get messier for SP after Holi and with a new BJP dispensation in power.

At the same time, it would be interesting to watch as to who dons the mantle of the leader of opposition in the UP legislative assembly, as Akhilesh is not a member of the legislative assembly. He did not fight the election and is a sitting member of legislative council (Vidhan Parishad).