Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, Jan 19: In a bid to undermine the damage the loss of a family member may cause in crossing over to a rival party, the Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav attempted to laugh out the joining the BJP his sister-in-law Aparna Yadav who the BJP described as a major gain.
Aparna Yadav is the wife of Akhilesh Yadav’s half-brother Prateek Yadav, the younger son of Samajwadi Party patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav. Reacting to a close relative like Aparna joining the bitter rival party, Akhilesh jockingly said he hoped that she “carried out Samajwadi ideology in the BJP.” The Samajwadi Party chief, using his trademark humour “thanked” the BJP and hinted that he had scored a better bargain in the tit-for-tat defections.
“I want to thank the BJP that they are giving tickets to those who even we are unable to give tickets to,” Akhilesh Yadav quipped. She had contested the 2017 Uttar Pradesh election as a Samajwadi Party candidate but had lost to Rita Bahuguna, who had crossed over from the Congress to the BJP. “I want to congratulate her and I am happy that the Samajwadi Party’s ideology is spreading. I am sure our ideology will reach there and spread democracy,” said Akhilesh Yadav.
Apparently Aparna left the SP because she was not certain of getting a ticket from Akhilesh, though he said the ticket distribution in the SP was still not complete, but she attempted to present before the people that she was switching over to the BJP because of her ideological affinity. On Wednesday, she said she was joining the BJP “to fulfill my duties to the country” and for her, it was always “nation first”. “I have always been inspired by Prime Minister Modi… I now want to try and do better for the country. I have been impressed by the schemes of the BJP and I will do my best in the party,” she said, listing measures for cleanliness and women empowerment as among those that had influenced her.
Akhilesh Yadav, however, revealed that his father Mulayam Singh Yadav tried to talk Aparna Yadav out of breaking ranks. Netaji tried his best to counsel her. Tickets are dependent on our internal surveys, on a lot of things,” Yadav said, hinting that she had been upset at being denied a seat to contest the polls.
Aparna Yadav is a big acquisition for the BJP after it lost many of its backward caste leaders, including three state ministers, to Akhilesh Yadav last week. Akhilesh Yadav suggested that he has gained far more political heft compared to Aparna’s loss. “We have brought people who have a mass base into the Samajwadi Party. The Samajwadi Party is set to form the government,” Yadav said.
He was asked about his sister-in-law saying she had now gone to a “nationalistic” party. “I have gone to a military school myself, a central government school. The people with me – many of them are protecting our borders now. Many of my seniors have had illustrious military careers. Can the BJP’s top leadership give one instance of even one of their classmates being in the army? What is the definition of nationalism? Did we not build an expressway where Air Force jets have landed?” the former Chief Minister replied.
Top BJP leaders from Uttar Pradesh, including Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, met Aparna soon after she had joined the party at the Delhi headquarters. The 32-year-old, who contested and lost in 2017 to the BJP’s Rita Bahuguna Joshi from Lucknow Cantt, is expected to get a BJP ticket in the coming polls. In a statement, the BJP UP chief Swatantra Dev Singh said: “We welcome SP leader Mulayam Singh Yadav’s daughter in law, Aparna, to the BJP.”
The BJP sources said the party would ally with the Nishad Party and the Apna Dal (S) for the elections although it refused to reveal seat-sharing details. Party chief JP Nadda only said “we are allying with them for all 403 seats (in the UP Assembly)”.
“BJP in UP is with NDA (National Democratic Alliance) partners for the upcoming election. We were together for Lok Sabha too… detailed discussions have been held and we are allying with them for all 403 seats (in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly),” BJP chief JP Nadda told reporters.
Apna Dal (S) leader Anupriya Patel, a junior Union Minister and a Lok Sabha MP, called the BJP-Apna Dal-Nishad Party alliance a “great cocktail of development and social justice”.
“We have always struggled for justice for the common man. With PM Modi we realised we can strengthen social justice… issues like OBC commission…reservation for backward classes… we got support from this government. So we decided this alliance will be taken forward in 2022,” she said.
“Backward classes were being betrayed and orphaned… only meagre reservation in jobs was there but this government helped… gave it in educational institutions too. In UP, parties kept changing but backward classes’ condition did not. Issues that remained unresolved for 70 years are being resolved under this government,” Sanjay Nishad of the Nishad Party said. The show of support – and the smaller parties’ remarks on Prime Minister Modi working for OBC communities – was significant given the BJP last week lost nearly a dozen MLAs.
Underlining that message of togetherness was a tweet by Home Minister Amit Shah: “Had a meeting with JP Nadda, Yogi Adityanath and allies Anupriya Patel and Sanjay Nishad. Blessings of the people of UP are with NDA and under PM Modi, we will form the government with a thumping majority.”
Over a 72-hour period last week the BJP lost 10 MLAs and three ministers, most of whom jumped to the Samajwadi Party. Reports suggest the loss has emboldened both Apna Dal (S) and the Nishad Party, which may be why talks over seat-sharing are likely continuing behind the scenes. In 2017 the Apna Dal (S) was given 11 seats and won nine. This time around reports suggest Ms Patel is angling for more, particularly since she has kept faith in the BJP even as others, including Omprakash Rajbhar, who joined Akhilesh Yadav last year, have not.
The Nishad Party fared terribly in 2017, contesting 72 seats but winning just one – Vijay Mishra won from Gyanpur. Mr Nishad himself finished third from the Gorakhpur (rural) seat. This time the BJP has limited the Nishad Party to 15 but talks are ongoing over two or three more.
Meanwhile, in neighboring Uttarakhand, senior leader Harak Singh Rawat, sacked from the BJP just weeks before the state election, wanted to return to his former party Congress but one man stands in the way – Harish Rawat. The former Chief Minister has reportedly told his party it should not take back the man who betrayed him. Harak Singh Rawat was one of the nine Congress MLAs who rebelled against Harish Rawat’s government in March 2016, reducing it to a minority. President’s rule came into force soon after. He has said he is willing to apologise to Harish Rawat.