Akhilesh Yadavs meeting with AAPs Sanjay Singh triggers alliance murmurs

Akhilesh Yadav,
former Uttar Pradesh chief minister and Samajwadi Party (SP) chief, met Aam
Admi Party’s Sanjay Singh in Lucknow on Wednesday triggering speculations about a
potential alliance between the two in the upcoming assembly elections. The
Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls are scheduled to take place early next year and
the 403-seat legislative assembly, India’s largest, serves as a bellwether for
national politics as a whole.

The Akhilesh
Yadav-Sanjay Singh meet may prove crucial in the upcoming polls as the SP and
Congress have decided against a pre-poll alliance in the UP elections. 48-year-old
Akhilesh Yadav is the son of long-time UP leader and former chief minister
Mulayam Singh Yadav.

Also Read | Uttar Pradesh elections 2022: 35% of assembly members face criminal cases, says ARD report

The Samajwadi
Party believes Akhilesh Yadav is the principal challenger to the Yogi
Adityanath-led BJP government in power in the state. The Congress, a one-time
ally of the SP, however, wants to project Priyanka Gandhi Vadra as a challenger
in the state.

Akhilesh Yadav has
already made it clear that the SP does not seek partnership with a bigger party
in Uttar Pradesh. Thus, SP will be looking to ally with smaller parties in the
state. For AAP, which is in power in the national capital, any opportunity to
make inroads into India’s largest state will help the party boost its national
profile.

For Samajwadi
Party to go it alone in the Assembly polls is a clear departure from its
earlier strategy. In the 2017 Uttar Pradesh elections, the SP allied with the
Congress. In 2019, a rag-tag coalition of long-time rivals SP and BSP contested
the Lok Sabha polls together. Both times, BJP swept the elections.

The change in
strategy seems to be a learning from experience of the past two polls. Samajwadi
Party’s focus seems to be on reinvigorating its own supporters instead of
rallying a big Opposition alliance. Following the meeting between Akhilesh
Yadav and AAP leader Sanjay Singh, AAP sources told NDTV that the meeting was
organised for a common platform against the BJP.