Why did the path of Chandrashekhar-Akhilesh parted?

Had there been talk 6 months ago, perhaps Azad Samaj Party could have got half a dozen seats. But the political situation in the state has changed rapidly in the last few days. With the arrival of first Inderjit Saroj and Veer Singh, then Swami Prasad Maurya and Dharam Singh Saini, the Samajwadi Party now has many strong Dalit-OBC faces. Quick comment by Syed Jagam Mortaza

The Azad Samaj Party of Chandrashekhar Azad could not have an alliance with the Samajwadi Party. Those monitoring the politics of the state were assuming that Akhilesh Yadav could use Chandrashekhar, his Bhim Army and Azad Samaj Party to break into Mayawati's Dalit fort in western Uttar Pradesh. In this light everything was going according to plan till the morning of January 15, 2022, but by the afternoon, the alliance collapsed. Both the leaders made statements against each other and parted ways. The question is, what happened between the evening of January 14 and the morning of January 15, which was a humiliation for Chandrashekhar and conspiracy for Akhilesh Yadav?

On the morning of January 15, when Chandrashekhar Azad met Akhilesh Yadav at the Samajwadi Party office, the announcement of the alliance was being considered a mere formality. According to Chandrashekhar Azad himself, talks were going on between the two leaders regarding the alliance for the last 6 months. Everything was almost decided. But by the time Chandrashekhar Azad came out of the office of the Samajwadi Party around 11 o'clock, the alliance's plan had been shattered. In the press conference that followed, Chandrashekhar Azad alleged that Akhilesh Yadav does not want to include Dalits in his alliance. Chandrashekhar claimed that “he has been mobilizing Dalits for the last 9 years and his aim is to stop the BJP from coming to power. He accused the Samajwadi Party president of humiliating him and said that an attempt was made to stop his press conference.

After some time, Akhilesh Yadav spoke to the press. He said that “a proposal was made to give two seats to the Azad Samaj Party. After this Chandrashekhar Azad called someone. Talking on the phone, he said that my party's organization is not agreeable on two seats. Akhilesh Yadav further said that all this has happened as part of a conspiracy against the Samajwadi Party alliance. From the talk of both the leaders, it was concluded that the scope of alliance has ended and now the paths of both the leaders are different. Now people are asking, why the alliance broke down and what will be its impact on the politics of West Uttar Pradesh?

If sources in the Samajwadi Party are to be believed, the Bhim Army chief is overconfident and was asking for more seats than necessary. Akhilesh Yadav had proposed to Azad Samaj Party to give Ghaziabad Sadar and Rampur Maniharan seat of Saharanpur district, but he did not agree. Azad was earlier demanding fifteen seats, but till the end remained adamant on the demand for eight seats. These included the seats of Saharanpur, Meerut, Bulandshahr, Amroha and Bijnor districts. Apart from these, he also had claims on Ghaziabad and Sahibabad seats. The SP has either already won candidates or sitting MLAs in these seats, or this seat has already been given to Jayant Chaudhary's Rashtriya Lok Dal in the alliance.

However, if there had been talk 6 months ago, then perhaps the Azad Samaj Party could have got half a dozen seats. But the political situation in the state has changed rapidly in the last few days. With the arrival of first Inderjit Saroj and Veer Singh, then Swami Prasad Maurya and Dharam Singh Saini, the Samajwadi Party now has many strong Dalit-OBC faces. After the arrival of Dharam Singh Saini, the politics of Saharanpur district has changed. Even a leader like Imran Masood, who is considered to be the main political face of Saharanpur till yesterday, has to fight for ticket in SP. Political sources even say that Imran Masood is also one of the reasons for the break-up of the alliance. Akhilesh Yadav is assuming that the election narrative has been set and the Dalits, backward, Muslims of the state are now mobilizing with him. In such a situation, the health of the SP is not affected much by the arrival or departure of anyone. However, this may be the overconfidence of the socialist camp.

But the impact of the breakup of this alliance is going to hurt Chandrashekhar's politics. He has created a political identity by gathering Dalit youths angry with BSP leader Mayawati, but people still have doubts about whether he still has any political existence in western Uttar Pradesh. People allege that the crowd that was around them was Muslims gathered during the anti-CAA agitation. He still has a lot to do in electoral politics. In the by-elections and panchayat elections held in the past, his party did get some votes, but he was not enough to assume the status of Om Prakash Rajbhar's Bharat Samaj Party or Sanjay Nishad's Nishad Party. In the alliance in which Om Prakash Rajbhar has got eight seats, in addition to two seats, there might have been talk of one MLC to the limit.