Sunday’s polling in UP a key challenge for Akhilesh Yadav

Lucknow: The third phase of voting in Uttar Pradesh on Sunday will be a crucial test — both politically and personally — for chief minister Akhilesh Yadav, who is seeking a second straight term after a bruising family feud and a contentious poll alliance he forged with the Congress.

Polling will be held in 69 Assembly seats across 12 central UP districts, often referred to as “Yadav land”. The region has been a Samajwadi Party stronghold built around backward-caste politics in the post-Mandal era by his now-estranged father Mulayam Singh Yadav and uncle Shivpal Yadav.

Retaining the 55 seats the SP won in 2012 will be a challenge for Akhilesh Yadav as the family has not been able to put up a united front.

Targeting his uncle in the SP bastion Etawah, the CM said on Friday that he was leading “the real” Samajwadi Party, and warned those “out to weaken him.”

“These very people want to float a new party... the election here is different. Here efforts are being made to defeat me... people of Etawah should not fall prey to any such design,” he said. The CM has denied tickets to several senior party leaders because they supported his father during the fight over the party’s control.

Mulayam Singh Yadav has ignored all SP candidates and campaigned only for Shivpal Yadav, who is also a candidate in this phase from Jaswantnagar, a constituency the CM has stayed away from. Their first election rally was in Etawah.

The BJP, which won five seats in 2012, is confident of cashing in on the confusion in the SP support base. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been raising the SP family war issue at his rallies.

The BSP, which won six seats in this phase in 2012 Assembly elections, is also confident of getting non-Yadav OBC votes. Party chief Mayawati has been underlining the “injustice done to Shivpal” by the CM, and has welcomed several ex-SP ministers. The Congress, in this phase, has nothing to lose. The party won just two seats.

Without his father by his side, and addressing a gathering in what’s considered Shivpal Yadav’s stronghold, an embattled CM warned people on Friday that the BSP might again “celebrate ‘raksha bandhan’” with the BJP after the Assembly elections.

“Buaji (aunt Mayawati) says she will prefer being the Opposition (if she did not get a majority)… you all need to remain vigilant. They (BSP and BJP) have celebrated ‘raksha bandhan’ earlier as well. She can again celebrate the festival with the BJP,” he said at a poll rally.

Polling has taken place for 140 seats in the first two rounds in the state. A total of 263 seats will go to the polls in the next 5 phases that will take place on February 19, 23, 27 and March 4 and 8. Results will be announced on March 11.