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In the ongoing Lok Sabha polls, the Samajwadi Party has done many flip-flops 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 Yadav decided to take on BJP’s Subrata Pathak who inflicted a surprise defeat on Dimple Yadav in 2019, on the last day of nomination for the fourth round.
Party sources are describing it as a well-thought-out strategy, though. Spokesperson Abdul Hafeez Gandhi said, “Akhilesh ji 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 first round and the desperation of the leaders of the ruling party in their language, it was felt it will be prudent if Akhilesh ji himself enters in the ring from the traditional seat of the party.” Perhaps that is what Mr Yadav meant when he told reporters, “Strike when the iron is hot,” after filing the nomination papers on Thursday.
Mr Yadav’s entry also indicates the easing of political relations between him and uncle Shivpal Yadav. When Mr Shivpal passed on the Budaun ticket to his son, Aditya Yadav, it was seen as yet another signal that he would like to concentrate on State politics. At present, both Mr Yadav and Mr Shivpal are members of the State Assembly. Mr Yadav’s decision to contest from Kannauj suggests that he has agreed to Mr Shivpal’s proposal, at least for now.
The seat has also become a prestige issue for the party as in 2019 Mr Pathak, in his third attempt at the hustings, wrested it from SP when he defeated bahu Dimple Yadav by over 12000 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 UP police constables and UPPSC’s RO ARO exam after the papers got leaked. Akhilesh ji has said in his rallies that it will bring down the BJP vote by 2.5 lakhs 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 Yadav joined hands with Chandra Shekhar and continued to be the Chief Minister with the help of Congress. “In the 1991 Lok Sabha polls, Chandra Shekhar-led Samajwadi Janata Party won only five seats and one of them was Kannauj where Chhote Lal Yadav won.” Since then, he said, Kannauj has been a bastion of 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 Akhilesh Yadav 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.
Mr Yadav’s entry, local observers say, would heat up the entire region – from Mainpuri in central UP (from where Ms Yadav is in the fray) to eastern UP. Like SP workers in Kannauj, Congress loyalists are seeking Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi’s candidature from Amethi and Rae Bareli respectively. “If it happens, it can generate a wave for the INDIA alliance in the east,” hoped Mr Gandhi.
