Lucknow: Dubbed as ''UP ke Ladke', they joined hands after a gap of seven years to counter the BJP in India’s biggest state of Uttar Pradesh which sends 80 MPs to the Lok Sabha, Samajwadi Party (SP) president Akhilesh Yadav and senior Congress leader Rahul Gandhi handed the BJP one of its biggest defeats in the state preventing the saffron party from getting a majority on its own.
The BJP had ridiculed the alliance between Akhilesh and Rahul saying that their earlier alliance in the 2017 assembly polls had failed miserably as a pointer to what was in store for it in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.
The 'UP ke ladke' however sprung a huge surprise this time and not only managed to reduce the BJP and its allies’ tally by half of what it had won in 2019 LS polls but also captured several saffron party strongholds including Ayodhya, much to the shock and dismay of the BJP.
Although the alliance between the two parties was stitched after much delay and bickering over seat sharing, Akhilesh and Rahul displayed perfect harmony in their joint election rallies and road shows in the state.
At many election meetings the two leaders were seen holding hands and laughing which indicated a good chemistry between them. This message percolated to the workers at the grass root level and they too displayed perfect cooperation.
Such was the bonhomie between the two leaders that Akhilesh addressed election meetings at Raebareli and Amethi, the two Congress bastions, while Rahul joined Akhilesh in addressing election meetings at Kannauj from where Akhilesh was in the fray and elsewhere.
Akhilesh’s wife Dimple Yadav and Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra also held a joint road show in prime minister Narendra Modi’s LS constituency of Varanasi.
‘’Akhilesh and Rahul had given clear instructions to the state leaders and local workers ... .They must work together to ensure a win for each others’ candidates,’’ said a senior UP Congress leader here.
The result was that thousands of SP workers joined the procession taken out at the time of nomination of Rahul from Raebareli. It also ensured that there was no division in the Muslim votes and the SP core voters also supported the Congress nominees.
In Ayodhya where SP defeated the BJP, senior Congress leader Nirmal Khatri was seen campaigning for the SP candidate. Another example of the cooperation was the candidature of Ujjwal Raman Singh from Allahabad LS seat. Ujjwal is an SP leader but contested the seat on Congress’ ticket after the grand old party told Akhilesh that he could be the best candidate to beat the BJP. Ujjwal won the seat.
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