Bhubaneswar: (Ajoy Kumar Misra) While praises are heaped on Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath for successfully organising the Mahakumbh at Prayagraj (former Allahabad), the Samajwadi Party led by former UP Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav is trying to find fault with the planning and implementation of Yogi’s arrangements almost every other day.
It is because the Samajwadi Party is struggling with a dilemma in politics, especially after the Milkipur by-poll debacle. The party has been using Avdesh Prasad as a trophy in every political forum to claim that the Hindus—particularly the BJP—have been humbled after the 2024 Lok Sabha election as the Milkipur segment of Faizabad Lok Sabha constituency had rejected the Ram Mandir issue.
while the Samajwadi Party is hell bent on pursuing appeasement politics, it is unable to make any decision when it comes to woo Hindus. Hence in every decision of the Modi-Yogi governments, Akhilesh sees only communalism and flaws.
Akhilesh and his team are still stuck in politics over the stampede during the royal bath on Mouni Amavasya, where thirty people lost their lives. The Samajwadi Party government has never revealed as to how many people were killed in police firing on Karsevaks in Ayodhya when Mulayam Singh Yadav was leading it. Akhilesh disputes the claims of the Yogi government that thirty people died in the stampede and calls it a lie.
This claim of Akhilesh is absurd. No government in the world can ever suppress a tragedy where thousands die. His argument that thousands of pairs of shoes, slippers, and bags were found at the site of the incident, is bordering childish claim as no one other than the kins of those who died have come forward to claim bodies or raised any suspicion.
The Milkipur result has convinced Akhilesh and Rahul Gandhi that the Dalits and backward classes have started abandoning the Samajwadi Party making Akhilesh only a leader of the Muslims.
The fact that educated and liberal Muslims are increasingly aligning with the saffron party.
The opposition parties in the INDI alliance have been criticising Mahakumb from day one. For RJD patriarch Lalu Yadav it is ‘unnecessary’ while West Bengal Chief Minister and Trinamul Congress chief Mamata Banerjee termed it ‘Mrityukumbh.’
The Samajwadi Party, in the past, had also raised objection to the construction of Ram Temple in Ayodhya and Akhilesh boycotted the inauguration of the Temple. Same is his approach during election– he sees flaws in the EVMs and the Election Commission and when Yogi talks about promoting Awadhi, Bhojpuri, and Bundeli languages, the Samajwadi Party raises the issue of promoting Urdu.
Akhilesh lacks the political acumen of father Mulayam who never allowed BJP to rise in the political arena. The SP supremo’s utterances which are ‘irresponsible’ and ‘immature,’ has been aiding the saffron party.
As a result, the Samajwadi Party has been seeing gradual downfall in election after election since 2012. Akhilesh is not only losing seats, he may soon lose grip on the core voters of his party.
