Akhilesh Yadav has desperately been seeking to contain the split between his Samajwadi Party and the Congress Party, the two major parties in the I.N.D.I. Alliance, by publicly claiming that everything is OK between them. In actuality, though, it appears that the internal conflict between the two political parties is getting worse.
The Congress workers in Uttar Pradesh have now, in what can be seen as a tit-for-tat move, put up posters portraying Congress MP Rahul Gandhi as the Prime Ministerial face of the I.N.D.I. bloc. The posters were placed outside the party’s headquarters in Uttar Pradesh’s Lucknow on Thursday, October 26. The move comes merely three days after the Samajwadi Party had put up posters in Uttar Pradesh’s Lucknow showing Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav as the future prime minister of India.
VIDEO | New poster outside Congress office in Lucknow reads: "Rahul in 2024, Rai in 2027", referring to Rahul Gandhi and party's UP chief Ajay Rai. pic.twitter.com/bzXYX2WLMs
— Press Trust of India (@PTI_News) October 26, 2023
The poster also showed the state Congress Chief Ajay Rai as the Chief Ministerial candidate for the 2027 state assembly polls.
Amid Congress-Samajwadi rift SP workers put up posters showing Akhilesh Yadav as I.N.D.I. Alliance’s PM face
It may be recalled that on October 23, the Samajwadi Party workers in Lucknow, UP had put up numerous posters showing Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav as the future prime minister of India.
The posters were put up outside the Samajwadi Party headquarters in Lucknow by the party workers.
UP: Posters portraying Akhilesh Yadav as "future PM" put up in Lucknow
— ANI Digital (@ani_digital) October 23, 2023
Read @ANI Story | https://t.co/2A7eiEJtq4#AkhileshYadav #SamajwadiParty #futurePM #INDIAalliance pic.twitter.com/CmhnIQ3a6f
Akhilesh Yadav warns about the future of alliance after Congress’ refusal to share seats with SP in MP polls
The posters have come at a time when the rift between the Congress party and Samajwadi Party, the two most important members of the I.N.D.I. bloc, an unholy nexus of 28 political parties formed solely with the aim to defeat the BJP in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections, is at its peak, with Akhilesh Yadav warning about the future of alliance after Congress’ refusal to share seats with them in Madhya Pradesh polls.
Akhilesh Yadav, the head of the Samajwadi Party and a key figure in the I.N.D.I. alliance, recently said that he would not have gone to any meetings if he had known that there was no state-level cooperation between his party and the Congress. The rage surfaced after his party was utterly disregarded in the impending Madhya Pradesh assembly election, which is set to take place next month. Never mind the promised six seats, the Samajwadi Party was not even assigned a single seat, leaving Akhilesh Yadav belittled and infuriated.
He noted, “A former chief minister of Madhya Pradesh asked us about our performance in the state. We told him how many seats we had won and when as well as in which seats we stood at number two. We had a comprehensive discussion. They woke up Samajwadi Party leaders even at 1 a.m. They assured us six seats. However, when the lists were announced, there were zero seats for the Samajwadi Party.”
Angered by the betrayal by the Congress party, the Samajwadi Party announced to contest the elections on its own and has fielded its candidates in as many as 31 seats.
The two parties have been in strife for the past few days, particularly since Ajay Rai, the president of the Uttar Pradesh Congress requested the Samajwadi Party to withdraw from Madhya Pradesh as it “did not have a base” there. He claimed that the battle had always been between the Congress and Bharatiya Janata Party. He added insult to injury and pointed out that the party won only one seat in 2018 and that its sole MLA in the state assembly had later switched to the latter.
Akhilesh Yadav’s U-Turn
Given the hype surrounding the formation of the I.N.D.I. Alliance to challenge the BJP in the upcoming national elections, the rift between the Samajwadi Party and the Congress Party not only became the newest topic of discussion in the political spectrum but also began to receive a lot of media attention. Realising that the tension between the Samajwadi and the Congress Party was highlighting a lack of clarity in the scope and contours of the I.N.D.I. alliance, the Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav was quick to take a U-turn.
Hours after the Samajwadi Party posters emerged, Akhilesh Yadav told the media in Dehradun on Monday (October 23) that “the alliance is very strong, and there are no differences with the grand old party.”
“They have a different way of thinking; we have a different way of thinking… We hope that the people of Uttarakhand will come together with the Samajwadi Party…” the Samajwadi Party chief clarified.
