Political turmoil in UP set to influence opposition meet

The political turmoil in Uttar Pradesh (UP) is having an impact on the meeting of opposition parties opposing the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Bangalore. It is believed that the rejoining of Subhashpada President Om Prakash Rajbhar and former minister Dara Singh Chauhan with the BJP in UP has softened the stance of Samajwadi Party (SP) President Akhilesh Yadav towards the Congress.
Under the leadership of the Congress, the way the BJP dealt a blow to Akhilesh Yadav in Purvanchal (Eastern UP) before the opposition meeting in Bangalore will make Akhilesh Yadav realise that the BJP can do something similar in Western UP as well. In this regard, the BJP is trying to bring Jayant Chaudhary, the president of Akhilesh Yadav’s oldest ally, the Rashtriya Lok Dal, back into its fold. It is said that the BJP has given Jayant Choudhary an offer. In such a situation, if there is any discord between Akhilesh Yadav and Jayant Chaudhary, Jayant can turn to the BJP.
Akhilesh Yadav also does not want the BJP to gain momentum for the Lok Sabha elections. Therefore, he would like to keep Jayant Chaudhary, the president of the Rashtriya Lok Dal, who has influence in Western UP, by his side. Seeing this opportunity, Jayant can now get his conditions accepted by Akhilesh. Jayant Chaudhary can bring the Congress along and negotiate for more seats with Akhilesh.
Sources say that Jayant Chaudhary is in talks with Akhilesh Yadav to contest the elections in alliance with the Congress in Western UP. It is said that Jayant believes that the traditional vote bank of the Samajwadi Party in Western UP, the Yadav vote bank, is in limited numbers. In such a situation, they do not want any division among the Muslim voters. That is why Jayant Chaudhary wants to bring the Congress along and secure the complete votes of the Jat and Muslim communities, while also bringing the Dalit vote under the support of Chandrashekhar Azad and presenting a strong alliance against the BJP.
It is being discussed in political circles that Akhilesh Yadav did not want to give Congress more than 5 seats. However, his old ally Jayant Chaudhary is advocating for giving Congress 10 to 15 seats. In this scenario, it is believed that Akhilesh Yadav can agree to the 50-30 formula. That is, the Samajwadi Party on 50 seats and Congress, RLSP, its own party Kamerawadi, and Chandrashekhar Azad’s party on the remaining 30 seats can come to a consensus on seat sharing. Speaking of the situation of the Congress in UP, the party has only 2 MLAs in the UP Legislative Assembly. In the Lok Sabha, the party has only one MP, Sonia Gandhi. If we look at the last three Assembly elections, in 2007, the Congress had 22 MLAs, which increased to 28 in 2012. However, in 2017, when the wave of the BJP was strong, the Congress was reduced to 7 MLAs. In 2022, the number of MLAs was limited to 2. Similarly, if we look at the last 3 Lok Sabha elections, in the general elections of 2004, the Congress won 9 seats in UP, which increased to 21 in 2009. However, in the 2014 elections, in the wave of Narendra Modi, the Congress seats decreased to 2, and these two MPs were Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi. The situation was even worse in the 2019 elections. Rahul Gandhi himself lost in Amethi, and only Sonia Gandhi could win from Rae Bareli.