Lucknow: Days after JD(U) leader and Bihar Chief Minister met SP patriarch Akhilesh Yadav and Mulayam Singh Yadav as part of his efforts to unite Opposition parties, a poster has emerged at the SP office here with a message that created a buzz in the political circle here.
“UP + Bihar = Gayi Modi Sarkar (If Uttar Pradesh and Bihar join hands, the Modi government will be ousted,” reads the message on the banner which has photos of Kumar and Akhilesh Yadav waving at the public not seen in the poster.
There are only two coloured elements in the black and white banner — Nitish Kumar’s green scarf (angochha) and Akhilesh Yadav’s red cap — both representing their respective parties’ preferred colour choice.
Uttar Pradesh and Bihar together send 120 (80 and 40, respectively) MPs to Lok Sabha, and the party or the political formation that perform better in these two states are in a good position to form a government in Delhi.
Samajwadi Party leader IP Singh, the man behind the banner, said Saturday Uttar Pradesh and Bihar have the history of initiating events that change the course of the country’s politics.
“If these states decide (to go for a change), then nothing will be left (for others). If we see the political map, the BJP would be nowhere,” he told PTI.
SP and other opposition parties in Uttar Pradesh have welcomed Kumar dumping the BJP in Bihar and joining hands with the RJD, Congress and Left parties to form a government there.
Coming close on the heels of a warm meeting between JD(U) de facto leader and the SP supremo in the national capital, the poster has sparked speculations in the Lucknow’s political circle.
IP Singh, also an SP spokesperson, said the most important thing is that the Samajwadi Party, Janata Dal (United), Rashtriya Janata Dal and Rashtriya Lok Dal are the forerunners of socialist ideology, and ‘netaji’ Muslyam Singh Yadav is the “patron” of all of them.
“It was the Samajwadis who had earlier uprooted dictatorship, and in the coming days, it would be socialists who would be heroes of the revolution,” Singh said.
Besides Akhilesh Yadav and Mulayam Singh Yadav, Kumar had also met Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, CPI-M general secretary Sitaram Yechury, CPI general secretary D Raja, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, INLD supremo OP Chautala and NCP chief Sharad Pawar.
Kumar had said he was not looking to cobble together a “third front” but the “main front”.
Meanwhile, Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati claimed on Saturday the Samajwadi Party is losing the support in of voters.
In a tweet in Hindi, she said, “The SP is losing its support base in UP, and its own actions are the main reason behind that. News of feuds within the family and the party, and its nexus with the criminal elements are quite common.”
BJP leader and Deputy Chief Minister of UP Keshav Prasad Maurya also took a dig at the SP.
“Restless for power, Akhilesh Yadav’s SP will not be able to open its account in the 2024 Lok Sabha election. The Modi wave in UP and in the country is stronger than before.”
In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the BJP had won 62 seats in UP, while its ally Apna Dal (Sonela) had won two. The BSP had won 10 seats, the SP five, while the Congress had won one. The BJP won the Azamgarh and Rampur seats in recent by-polls, taking its tally to 64 and that of the NDA’s to 66.
In Bihar, the NDA — then the BJP, JD(U) and the LJP combine — had won 39 out of the total 40 seats in 2019. Out of this, the BJP had a share of 17 seats, JD(U) 16 and Lok Janshakti Party of former union minister Ram Vilas Paswan six.
With the JD(U) walking out of the alliance, the NDA has 23.
The Congress has one seat in Bihar and the RJD zero.
(Except for the headline, the story has not been edited by Siasat staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
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