On ‘popular demand’, Bhaiyyaji back in SP’s pocket borough of Kannauj
Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav’s last-minute return to the party’s bastion has lit up the Lok Sabha electoral contest in eastern Uttar Pradesh; the seat has become a prestige issue for the party as in 2019, sitting BJP MP Subrata Pathak, in his thir
In the ongoing Lok Sabha election, the Samajwadi Party has done many £ip-£ops in ticket distribution, but not many thought that the decision of party president Akhilesh Yadav contesting from Kannauj will also come as a second thought.
After declaring his nephew Tej Pratap Yadav as the candidate, Mr. Akhilesh decided to take on the BJP’s Subrata Pathak, who in£icted a surprise defeat on the SP chief ’s wife, Dimple Yadav, in 2019, on the last day of nomination for the fourth round.
Well-planned move
Party sources, though, are describing it as a wellthought-out strategy. Party spokesperson Abdul Haz Gandhi said: “Akhileshji has entered the fray on popular demand.”
A party leader, requesting anonymity, said Bhaiyyaji,
as Mr. Yadav is called in the region, wanted to check how much the grassroots worker wanted him to contest. “After seeing the electorate’s response in the rst round and the desperation of the leaders of the ruling party in their language, it was felt it will be prudent if Akhileshji himself enters the ring from the traditional seat of the party,” he said. Perhaps that is what Mr. Yadav meant when he told reporters “strike when the iron is hot...” after ling his nomination papers on Thursday for the contest.
The seat has become a prestige issue for the party as in 2019 Mr. Pathak, in his third attempt at the hustings, wrested it from the SP when he defeated Ms. Yadav by over 12,000 votes.
There is a sense in the party that Mr. Tej Pratap would not have been able to take on the polarisation pitch that the BJP was expected to amplify in the coming days. After Mr. Yadav’s entry, Mr. Pathak has said the contest has acquired the stature of an “India-Pakistan match”.
“BJP is facing the heat of the youth anger because of the cancellation of recruitment exam for Uttar Pradesh police constables and UPPSC’s RO ARO exam after the papers got leaked. Akhileshji has said in his rallies that it will bring down the BJP votes by 2.5 lakh in each constituency,” said senior leader Muneer Ahmad.
Known for its itra (perfume) industry, Kannauj always had a fragrance of socialist politics in its air. Ram Manohar Lohia represented the seat in 1967.
A seasoned campaigner, Mr. Ahmad remembered that Kannauj had always been an important seat for the Samajwadis even before the party took a formal shape in 1992. After the collapse of the National Front government, Mulayam Singh joined hands with Chandra Shekhar and continued to be the Chief Minister with the help of the Congress.
“In the 1991 Lok Sabha election, the Chandra Shekhar-led Samajwadi Janata Party won only ve seats and one of them was Kannauj where Chhote Lal Yadav won,” he said. Since then, Kannauj has been a bastion of the SP.
Mulayam Singh had this habit of contesting from two constituencies and when he won from both, he would leave the safer one for a younger member of the Yadav clan.
In 2000, after he won Kannauj and Sambhal, he made way for his son from the former, marking his entry into electoral politics. Mr. Yadav retained the seat in 2009 before leaving it for his wife when he became the Chief Minister of the State.