For Alliance With Mayawati, Akhilesh Yadav Says "Ready To Take Step Back"

Lucknow: Upbeat about his tie-up with Mayawati's Bahujan Samaj Party that he believes would pose a formidable challenge to the ruling BJP, Samajwadi Party boss Akhilesh Yadav today signaled that he was willing go out of his way for the sake of the alliance.

"I am ready to be practical... From my side, I know I have to run this alliance. This alliance is important. If I have to take two steps back, I am willing to do it," Mr Yadav, 44, told NDTV in an interview. But this did not imply that any of the two parties were junior or senior.

It was Mayawati's support that is believed to have played a role in ensuring the Samajwadi Party's stunning victory in the Lok Sabha bypolls from Gorakhpur and Phulpur, two prestigious seats last held by Uttar Pradesh's chief minister Yogi Adityanath and his deputy.

Mr Yadav pointed to his decision to give the SP-Congress tie-up for state elections in 2017 in which he had given the Congress 100 seats and contested 300 seats as evidence that he was willing to go an extra mile. The SP chief recalled that many of his party leaders had advised against giving such a high number of tickets.
 The BJP rode a Modi super wave to a massive victory, netting along with its allies 325 of the 403 seats and installing Yogi Adityanath as the Chief Minister.

That decision, he suggested, helped ensure that despite their stunning defeat, his party's relations with the Congress "did not sour".

It is an approach that the SP boss expects would work well with Mayawati, who didn't let the defeat of her party's candidate in last month's Rajya Sabha election come in the way of her partnership with her party's newly-discovered friend.

But she did counsel Akhilesh Yadav from a public platform that he should have made "every sacrifice" to ensure BSP candidate Bhim Rao Ambedkar's win, particularly when the BJP was so determined to defeat him to engineer a rift between the BSP and SP.

It implied she wanted Akhilesh Yadav to tell his lawmakers to ensure Mr Ambedkar's victory even if it meant that the SP's Jaya Bachchan lost in the process. "Had I been in his place," Mayawati had said, "this is what she would have done".
 It is an advice that Mr Yadav may have taken to heart.

The Samajwadi Party leader confirmed to NDTV that he would not seek re-election from the Uttar Pradesh legislative council. His term ends next month and elections for the 13 vacancies are to be held on April 26.

Mr Yadav did not say if his party would field a candidate or leave it for the BSP, as a goodwill gesture.
"It will be a decision that will be liked by everyone," he said, hinting at a possible gift.

The original deal between the BSP and the SP for the Gorakhpur and Phulpur seats was that the SP - which would have some extra votes after ensuring victory of one candidate - would use them to support a BSP candidate.

If the SP doesn't field a candidate, Mayawati's BSP may have well stand a good chance to win two, not just one seat.