Akhilesh Yadav’s Recent Moves Spark Speculation Over Opposition Unity and 2027
PANKAJ YADAV / New Delhi
Uttar Pradesh goes to Assembly polls next year. This would be the third time when Akhilesh Yadav-led Samajwadi Party (SP) would be in the fray as an opposition party. In other words, SP has been out of power for almost 10 years. For the past couple of years, Akhilesh Yadav has been harping on the slogan “PDA “ Pichhda, Dalit, Alp-sankhyak”. By “Alp-Sankhyak he means Minorites i.e. the Muslims vote-bank.
Yet, when it came to filling coveted Rajya Sabha berths, the high-flying slogan was quietly sidelined. Instead of empowering grassroots cadres from the marginalized communities he claims to champion, Yadav handed Parliament’s upper house tickets to two entirely different figures: his 80-year-old “Chacha,” Prof. Ramgopal Yadav, and Gujarat-based corporate executive Dhanraj Parimal Nathwani.
Over the past few days, intense resentment has been brewing up among the people belonging to the #PDA, particularly the Yadav and the minority (Muslim) communities. They are raging over the fact that their leaders were ignored by Akhilesh Yadav while bestowing the two Rajya Sabha seats on his “Chacha” and Dhanraj Nathwani.
Prof. Ramgopal Yadav has already enjoyed five full terms in Rajya Sabha, while Dhanraj Parimal Nathwani will make his debut in the House where his father Parimal Nathwani is already there. Dhanraj works with Mukesh Ambani’s Relliance Industries in a top position, besides being the president (since 2022) of the Gujarat Cricket Association (GCA) vacated by none other than Amit Shah, the current-day Union Home Minister.
Dhanraj’s father Parimal Nathwani is through an Independent MP, but installed with the active support of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Dhanraj is being widely seen as a “BJP’s man” in political circles.
Now, several questions arise about what compulsion, or coercion, Akhilesh Yadav had to declare Prof. Ramgopal Yadav and Dhanraj Piramal Nathwani as his party’s candidates in the Rajya Sabha elections, slated for Oct. 16.
Why couldn’t Akhilesh Yadav set an example by giving a chance to persons (read ‘party workers’) belonging to #PDA ? Has Akhilesh Yadav gone financially broke that he needed “money” from the country’s top industrial group to adjust one of its men in the Parliament? Why Akhilesh Yadav fielded a person whose allegiance with the BJP is a known conclusion? How does Dhanraj Nathwani fit in the #PDA coalition Akhilesh Yadav has been talking about? Or, Has Akhilesh Yadav joined hands with the BJP’s central leadership ahead of the next year’s U.P. Assembly elections to “uproot” Yogi Adityanath ?
That Akhilesh Yadav had been hobnobbing with the BJP’s central leaders stems from the fact that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had recently praised him in Lok Sabha during the last parliamentary session. “Recently, Modi said in parliament – “Akhilesh ji mere mitr hain, kabhi-kabhi madad kar dete hain,” Modi said in a lighter vein while addressing Akhilesh Yadav, who “graciously” accepted the “compliment” with folded hands and a smile on his face, even as his wife Dimple Yadav was all smiles sitting just behind him.
Also, over the past few days Akhilesh Yadav has been apparently “soft” on the nationwide agitations against Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar. And, then, he failed to turn up at the I.N.D.I.A. Bloc meeting held in New Delhi on September 30. Doesn’t his recent “moves” indicate enough towards him being hands-in-glove with the BJP ?
All these years Akhilesh Yadav had been confronting with the allegation of “Parivaarwaad”. Now, will be able to succeed in 2027 Uttar Pradesh, with another allegation of “sitting” in the lap of the industrialists staring at him ?