Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav's big attack in Lok Sabha: Is strategy to shift to national politics working

Tribune News Service

Vibha Sharma

Chandigarh, July 2

Speaking in the Lok Sabha on Tuesday, Samajwadi Party supremo Akhilesh Yadav came down heavily on the Narendra Modi government, taking on the ruling BJP-led NDA on various issues, including NEET, unemployment, paper leaks in Uttar Pradesh and Agniveer scheme. 

Taking a dig at the Election Commission, the Uttar Pradesh leader also said that “he will not trust EVMs even if he wins all 80 Lok Sabha seats in Uttar Pradesh”.

His party had won 37 of the 80 seats in the key state in the recently concluded Lok Sabha elections.

Participating in a debate in the Lok Sabha on the motion of thanks to the President’s address, Yadav said the INDIA alliance will do away with EVMs when it comes to power.

“When the Model Code of Conduct was imposed, the government and the commission were favouring some people. I do not want to go into details. Somewhere a question has been raised on that institution as well,” he also said in an apparent reference to the EC.

Making a splash in national politics

Yadav, who remained on the front foot, taking on the Yogi Adityanath-led government as a member of the UP Assembly, also raised issues that people could identify with in his election speeches for the Lok Sabha. 

According to many political observers, it would have been “better for the party” had Yadav stayed on in UP to prepare his party for the next Assembly elections in the state. 

As he took on the government in the lower house today, Yadav also termed the recently concluded Lok Sabha polls as the “end of communal politics in India”. 

Referring to the BJP's defeat in Faizabad, he said it was perhaps the wish of Lord Ram. “Hoi wahi jo Ram rachi rakha (Whatever Lord Ram has planned will happen),” Yadav said with Faizabad MP and SP leader Awadhesh Kumar seated next to him.

Political statements make a better impact from a larger platform, say the supporters of his decision.

Win-win for Samajwadi Party?

Yadav was an MLA from Karhal as well as the leader of the opposition in the UP legislative Assembly.

Defending his decision to shift to national politics after winning Kannauj, they say that the Samajwadi Party is now in a “better position to raise issues that can impact the national politics”.

“The regional satrap won as many as 37, making it the third largest party in the House. Keeping this group together would only be possible if Yadav himself was there in the Lok Sabha to control and monitor the flock. So far as UP is concerned, when he speaks in the Lok Sabha his voice also reaches the state along with rest of the country,” say analysts.

If he plays his cards well, as a part of the national politics, the Samajwadi Party leader can emerge as an important player in the coalition era like his father, late Mulayam Singh Yadav.

“A good politician is able to sense what suits him best at a given time. In his political career spanning more than six decades, Mulayam Singh served for three terms as the Chief Minister of UP and also as the Defence Minister at the Centre. A regional party also gains when its leader is in an important position at the centre,” they add.

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