Hand to steer Cycle to victory in Uttar Pradesh

Rahul, Akhilesh launch joint campaign

Lucknow/New Delhi: Walking shoulder to shoulder and almost identically dressed, Uttar Pradesh CM and Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav and Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi on Sunday addressed their first joint press conference and held a roadshow, giving a call for crushing BJP's politics of "anger and divisiveness".

Reflecting camaraderie and personal bonding, the scions of Congress and Samajwadi Party showcased themselves as the two wheels of a bicycle. The 43-year-old Akhilesh said, "There is not much difference in age between us and today is the beginning." Rahul is 46. "Rahul and I will take the state ahead on the path of prosperity," he said at the hour-long press conference.

The Congress leader said partnership between Congress and SP was the "uttar" (answer) to BJP's politics of anger and divisiveness. Yadav and Gandhi set off on a 12-km road show starting from the Gandhi statue at Hazratganj through most of Old Lucknow in a show of unity and to showcase the tagline of their poll campaign “UP ko ye saath pasand hai” (UP likes this alliance).

Positioning the alliance as an anti-Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) front, the Congress vice-president said this was an alliance of 3Ps. “This is an alliance for the progress, prosperity and peace of Uttar Pradesh and it will fight against the BJP’s divisive politics of anger and for the youth and development of the state,” he said at the press conference.

Akhilesh Yadav, the chief ministerial candidate of the alliance, called it a people’s alliance. “People want this alliance to be successful. If the cycle gets a hand then imagine how fast the cycle can move. These are the wheels of development. There is no doubt that we will get more than 300 seats,” he said at the press conference.

After months of negotiations and a last minute intervention by Congress president Sonia Gandhi and her daughter Priyanka Gandhi, the two parties reached a final seat sharing arrangement on 22 January with the Congress getting 105 and Samajwadi Party 298 of the 403 assembly seats. Elections will be held in the state in seven phases from 11 February till 8 March.

While posing a significant challenge to the BJP, the two parties are also trying to consolidate the minority vote in the state, especially with a resurgent Mayawati-led Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) eyeing the same electorate.

Hitting out at the BJP for its decision to ban high currency notes, Yadav said, “This alliance is an answer to those who made people stand in lines due to demonetisation. Now, people will once again stand in lines, this time to vote us to power.”

Not denying the possibility of the two parties coming together for the 2019 Lok Sabha election, Rahul Gandhi, “I view this alliance as a partnership, we are working together with a goal to defeat fascist forces and the RSS, BJP ideology. We are open to discussions (for a future alliance), it is a possibility.”

However, bickering between the alliance over seat-sharing- which had first emerged when a list of 191 candidates released by the Samajwadi Party irked the Congress because it contained the names of nominees for nine seats which the latter occupies- still remains unresolved.

More recently the two parties have been haggling over seats in Amethi and Rae Bareli, the parliamentary turf of Congress president Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi. While the Samajwadi Party had announced five candidates in these constituencies before the alliance was sealed, Congress is negotiating hard for its claim over all the ten seats in these two areas.

“These are internal issues, while the broad idea is to fight united and defeat the BJP. This is not a fundamental issue but a peripheral issue of the alliance,” said Gandhi. Analysts say that the coming together of both parties makes for a formidable combination and not only benefits both the parties but both the leaders as well.

“The alliance has given the Samajwadi Party and the Congress an edge by securing the minority voter in a tight three-cornered contest between them, BJP and BSP. With Akhilesh Yadav now heading the party, this alliance is also a launch pad for him into UP politics as a seasoned politician who fought all odds to bring his party together. Similarly, the success of this alliance will do the ground work for Rahul Gandhi’s political prospects in the 2019 Lok Sabha election,” said Ramesh Dixit, a Lucknow-based political analyst.