LUCKNOW: After suffering massive defeats in the 2022 assembly polls and the Gola Gokarannath bypoll, the Samajwadi Party is back to the drawing board as it faces a number of challenges in trying to save its fort in the Mainpuri Lok Sabha seat and the Rampur (Sadar) assembly seat where the bypolls are due on December 5, 2022.
SP chief Akhilesh Yadav was huddled with the senior party leaders in Lucknow on Monday to decide on the strategy and deliberate over the possible faces to be fielded in the two constituencies.
Notably, both seats are considered to be bastions of the Samajwadis. The bypoll in the Mainpuri Lok Sabha seat has been necessitated due to the demise of sitting MP and SP patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav after a prolonged illness on October 10, 2022.
On the other, SP stalwart Mohammad Azam Khan’s disqualification from the state assembly owing to his conviction in a hate speech case has led to bypoll in Rampur (Sadar) seat which Azam Khan had won 10th time during the UP assembly election in 2022 while being in jail. He had trounced his nearest rival BJP’s Akash Saxena by a huge margin of 55,000 votes.
On one hand, the SP leadership faces the task of keeping the morale of the cadre high after the Gola drubbing as they have to continue the momentum in Mainpuri and Rampur, on the other, a decision over the faces to be fielded on both sides to match the stature of Mulayam and Azam has to be made.
“The party, at present, seems cagey about the previous by-poll defeats in its bastions -- Rampur and Azamgarh Lok Sabha -- at the hands of ruling BJP, in June this year,” says Prof AK Mishra, a prominent political scientist. “While SP’s first family pride would be put to test in Mainpuri which was represented by Mulayam Singh Yadav for five times since 1996 in Lok Sabha, the battle of Rampur Sadar will not be a cakewalk for it as the ruling party has already captured the Lok Sabha constituency,” said Prof Mishra.
Significantly, Mulayam had a tight grip on Mainpuri where SP remained invincible for the last 22 years. Either Mulayam himself or any member of the Yadav clan have represented it in Parliament.
“The challenge to retain both the seats is there. If the ruling party succeeds in wresting even one of the two seats from SP, it would be demoralising for the SP supporters and workers ahead of the bigger battle of 2024,” said Prof Mishra.
As per the highly placed SP sources, Akhilesh held a series of meetings with local leaders of Mainpuri to arrive at a consensus over the candidate for the Lok Sabha seats on Saturday and Sunday.
The common refrain remained that a family member should be fielded who could take the legacy of ‘Netaji’ forward. “The names of SP chief’s wife and former MP Dimple Yadav, Akhilesh’s cousin Dharmendra Yadav and his nephew Tej Pratap Yadav cropped up during the discussion as front runners who could be entrusted with the responsibility of Mainpuri,” said a senior SP leader seeking anonymity.
However, the political experts also stress that Akhilesh needs to take Shivpal along in the scheme of things to be successful.
In Rampur, the decision on the candidate would be done taking Azam Khan into confidence and giving preference to his choice of candidate in his stronghold.
The SP is treading cautiously after consecutive defeats in the last three by-polls during which the SP chief kept himself away from campaigning while resting his confidence on party workers and local leaders. He, however, drew brickbats for his strategy after losing both Rampur and Azamgarh LS seats to the BJP.
In Gola, while the BJP had put the entire battery of Yogi ministers to campaign for the party candidate, the SP campaign was led by state chief Naresh Uttam and Akhilesh had issued only a public appeal seeking support for his candidate. However, in the upcoming bypolls, Akhilesh is expected to hold the command of the party’s campaign as it is the question of saving pride and honour of the two stalwarts. Only time will tell.