Cong-SP alliance bites the dust

The much-hyped electoral alliance stitched by ‘UP ke ladke’ (Akhilesh Yadav and Rahul Gandhi) might have appeared formidable on paper, but it miserably failed to click on the ground.

While Rahul and Akhilesh displayed bonhomie and worked in cohesion, they failed to persuade their party workers to help each other and as a result, the alliance failed to pose any serious threat to the BJP in the polls.

Many leaders of the SP and Congress, who could not secure nominations following seat-sharing arrangements, either chose to fight the polls in defiance of their respective parties or desert their parent organisations and join the rival camps.

There were murmurs of dissent even at the time of stitching together the alliance, with many from both parties terming it impractical. Even state Congress chief Raj Babbar was said to be opposed to the alliance.

“We had organised successful programmess like cot meetings and rath yatras against the SP regime. Had we gone alone in the polls, we could have done well... it was a huge mistake to join hands with the SP,” a senior Congress leader said.

UP minister Ravidas Mehrotra went on record to express his opposition to the alliance. “SP workers worked for the Congress nominees, but Congress workers did not reciprocate,” he said.

Besides, on many seats, the two parties faced each other. They included Zaidpur, Lucknow Central, Maharajpur, Kole, Bhognipur, Chandpur, Hargaon, Arya Nagar, Kanpur Cantonment, Purkaji, Amethi, Gaurganj, Tiloi and Baldev.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in almost all his election meetings, referred to the Congress’ pre-alliance slogan of ‘27 saal, UP behal’ (no development in UP in 27 years), which was coined by the party when it had launched cot meetings across the state.

“Modi was successful in sending the message to the voters that this alliance was opportunistic... he hammered this point home throughout the campaigning,” an SP leader said.

Akhilesh meets guv, resigns

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav on Saturday handed over his resignation to Governor Ram Naik following the SP’s defeat in the Assembly polls, DHNS reports from Lucknow.

Akhilesh drove to the Raj Bhavan in the evening and tendered his resignation.
A Raj Bhavan communique said that Naik has accepted the resignation, and asked the SP chief to continue as caretaker chief minister till the new government is sworn in.