Kingmaker in the Wings: Five times Akhilesh Yadav has proved he is a consummate politician
When the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and Samajwadi Party (SP) announced their seat-sharing pact on January 12, Akhilesh Yadav let Mayawati step up and do most of the talking. The BSP supremo spoke first and at length. Akhilesh followed, reading from a pre-drafted note, just like Mayawati, breaking from his style of speaking extempore at press conferences.
His critics mocked him for following Mayawati blindly — but the 45-year-old knows style is a small price to pay for winning big in elections.
In 2017, Akhilesh Yadav lost Uttar Pradesh to the BJP in the Assembly elections. However, the young SP leader has gone on to strengthen his hold over the party and then project himself as the kingmaker — should the possibility of a coalition government emerge after results of the 2019 General Elections are declared.
Here are the five times Akhilesh Yadav has shown he is indeed a seasoned politician.
1.). How Akhilesh asserted himself as the SP supremo
In January 2017, Akhilesh officially took over as the party president. To rise to the top within his own party, Akhilesh had to fight his own — father Mulayam Singh Yadav and uncle Shivpal. Unlike most dynastic parties where fathers declare their sons as natural heirs, Mulayam was seen siding with his brother.
A crime-ridden Uttar Pradesh meanwhile was looking for a leader to change things. Akhilesh was quick to realise that the age-old goonda raj purportedly perpetuated by his party would no longer cut much ice with his electorate. Akhilesh took it upon himself to deliver that change. He succeeded in getting Shivpal out of the party.
But the family feud led to SP’s rout in the Assembly election. While a wave in favour of Narendra Modi did help BJP do well, SP supporters drifted, sensing that the party was a divided house.
The party was in ruins — but Akhilesh ensured he used the ruins as the road to transformation.
With Shivpal gone, the party cadre is now staunchly behind Akhilesh.
His father too has made peace with the situation.
2.). Truck with Mayawati
Akhilesh is already an astute politician. He knew before most other regional leaders that only a united front could take on the might of the Modi-Shah combine.
He reached out to Mayawati with an offer of a truce. Now, the rivalry between the two parties is not lost on anyone. But Akhilesh knows in politics, there are no permanent enemies. Mayawati is not easy to please, especially in the backdrop of the infamous guest house incident, in which SP men beat up BSP workers and the BSP supremo had to lock herself in a room to escape. Akhilesh’s job was therefore Herculean.
But the deft politician succeeded by ensuring BSP a Rajya Sabha seat, winning the latter’s support to ensure SP candidates win both Phulpur and Gorakhpur Lok Sabha seats.
The alliance did not dither, despite the BSP not being able to get the Rajya Sabha berth.
The SP-BSP alliance is ready to take on the BJP in the Lok Sabha elections.
3.). Bridges with Congress not burnt
When the SP-BSP alliance decided to leave the Congress out of their group, Akhilesh allowed Mayawati to explain the reasons why. In doing so, he ensured he doesn’t speak out against the grand old party himself. This has resulted in Akhilesh’s ties with Congress president Rahul Gandhi remaining intact.
When Priyanka Gandhi took her formal political plunge, Akhilesh was quick to welcome her entry. He then requested the Congress to work together with the ‘secular’ forces to ensure the BJP is defeated.
This keeps Akhilesh's doors open for a post-poll tie-up with the Congress, if the latter has enough seats to stake claim to form a govenment.
4.). No caustic attack on Modi
The SP leader may have invoked secularism as the glue to bring together an alliance against the Modi dispensation — but interestingly, he has refrained from any severe criticism of Modi himself.
Quite obviously, Akhilesh is ready to enter into an alliance with the BJP too, which, according to current projections, is likely to emerge as the single-largest party after the General Elections. If he does so, Akhilesh won’t have to do too much explaining because unlike other parties, he has never been overtly critical of Modi’s policies and politics.
He can easily say he is entering into an alliance with the BJP under Modi in national interest because the country needs a stable government.
So, Akhilesh knows how to keep all his options open.
5.). Covering up the compromises
Akhilesh Yadav has made compromises in order to stitch up an alliance, but he has done all that he could to ensure he doesn’t come across as too soft.
So, when the seat-sharing had to happen in UP, the SP declared the deal was a 50:50 arrangement with both parties contesting 38 seats each.
The initial announcement left only two seats for the Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) and two for the Congress.
But RLD had demanded three seats to join the alliance. So, later, Akhilesh announced the SP was passing one seat from its share to the RLD.
This way, the tie-up between SP and BSP appeared to be an alliance between two equals.
Akhilesh Yadav has proved that he is an astute politician — and indeed, he could hold a lot of bargaining chips when the results for the General Elections are announced.
Also read: The 5 leaders whose political fortunes revived in 2018. What 2019 holds for them now