Akhilesh Yadav plans expansion beyond Uttar Pradesh

Amidst whispers of rifts within the alliance of the Samajwadi Party (SP) and RLD in Uttar Pradesh, SP leader Akhilesh Yadav is gearing up for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections. While his old ally, Jayant Chaudhary’s RLD is in talks with Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, sources suggest that Yadav is keen to field candidates in six other states, with strategies already in place.
Following the announcement of the “India Alliance”, Akhilesh Yadav seems to be setting his sights beyond Uttar Pradesh, especially in states where SP has previously won legislative assembly seats. Maharashtra is believed to be significant, where SP has previously clinched two assembly seats. Due to this influence, Akhilesh and Abu Azmi, the state president for SP in Maharashtra, are strategizing for the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections.
In Gujarat, following a legislative assembly win for Kanghalbhai Sarmanbhai Jadeja, the son of the infamous “Lady Don” Santokben Jadeja, on an SP ticket, the party is also preparing to contest in the subsequent Lok Sabha elections.
Sources claim that Akhilesh Yadav plans to field candidates in Lok Sabha elections from Uttarakhand, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan, Gujarat, and Maharashtra under the India Alliance banner. Yadav’s efforts to unify opposition parties nationwide against the BJP are evident. Speculations are that Yadav might put forth his proposal in the upcoming India Alliance meeting in Mumbai. The decision to field candidates outside Uttar Pradesh is also influenced by the SP’s potential need to allocate some of its influential seats to the India Alliance for elections. Akhilesh aims to offset this by strengthening the party’s presence in other states.