Civic poll results a wake up call for Akhilesh

When local body elections were announced Samajwadi Party national president Akhilesh Yadav declared that he will not campaign in the election. The news sent a shock wave among the party cadre. A senior party leader and legislator told this reporter in a private conversation that this decision might prove costly for the party because the cadre will not feel enthused in the absence of Akhilesh Yadav.

On Friday the result was declared and the way Samajwadi Party was decimated shows that SP legislator was able to read ground realities to the T , which Akhilesh failed to do.

Insiders in the Samajwadi Party accept that Akhilesh is arrogant and is yet to accept the fact that he is in opposition. He still believes that he had done a lot for the state but people elected BJP by default. People close to him have convinced him that SP will return to power in 2022 because people are already fed up with the mis-rule of BJP.

Akhilesh need to learn that four and a half years is a very big time in politics. The political matrix can change by that time and the contours of that change are visible in this election the way BSP performed. The BSP did not contest the 2006 and 2012 but after debacle it suffered in Vidhan Sabha and Lok Sabha elections Mayawati decided to contest this election. This decision paid dividend. It not only BSP won two mayoral seats of Meerut and Aligarh but was runners up in Jhansi, Agra and Saharanpur while it was in third position in Ghaziabad, Gorakhpur, Ayodhy and Mathura.

The big takeaways from Local Body elections:

• BJP won 14 out of 16 Mayoral elections with Samajwadi Party and Congress drawing a blank. BSP won two seats – Meerut and Aligarh.
• In Nagar Palika elections BJP won 70 out of 198 Palika Chairman’s posts while independents called that shot when it comes down to Nagar Palika members when they won 3444 seats out of 5261 seats. All the parties had contested this election on party symbols.
• Independents have again stole the march in Panchayat Adhyaksha election when it won 193 seats against 438 posts while BJP won just 100. Similarly in Panchayat members elections maximum 3972 candidates won seats against total strength of 5434 which is much more than political parties’tallies with BJP winning 666 seats followed by SP (453) and BSP (217).
• Despite good performance BJP lost election in the ward where Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath casted his vote in Gorakhpur. Similarly, BJP candidate lost election in Sirathu (Kaushambhi) the constituency of deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya.
• In Aligarh, said to be Kalyan Singh’s castle and now represented in Lok Sabha by his son Rajbir Singh and Vidhan Sabha by his grand son, BJP lost the election.
• In Jashwant Nagar Samajwadi Party candidate lost to an Independent supported by Shivpal Singh Yadav. Jaswant Nagar is assembly constituency of Shivpal.
• Congress lost election in Amethi, though it did not field candidate for Nagara Panchayat Adhyaksh (chief)’s post in Amethi and Musafirkhana.