Outlook English - Print Subscribers Copy Outlook English, 18 June 2018 | Page 36

COVER STORY
Akhilesh Yadav 44
Former chief minister of UP
Samajwadi Party president
STRENGTHS WEAKNESSES
● Emerged as face of
development as UP CM
● Has a youthful and relatively
clean personal image
● Has shown sagacity by
building bridges with Mayawati
● Rebuilt the SP by patching
up with father Mulayam Singh
and uncle Shivpal Yadav ● Lost grip over law and order
in UP as he promoted members
of the Yadav community
● Failed to stand up to his
family as they bulldozed his
decisions
OPPORTUNITIES THREATS
Hold over the Muslim-Yadav
votebank, amounting to about
28 per centof the voters
● SP’s tally can only increase
from the present seven seats
(including two recent bypoll
wins) in the Lok Sabha and 47
in the UP assembly. ● Family feuds and internal
rivalries can flare up anytime
● Other regional satraps like
Mayawati may force him to
play second fiddle
●
Hasan as the best candidate to take on the BJP in Kairana,
which had hit the headlines as a communal hotspot in recent
years. The amicable deal the two struck was exemplified by
how the candidature was sealed: Hasan was with the SP and
Akhilesh “loaned” her to RLD. “It was Akhilesh who suggested
that we field Hasan on an RLD ticket…. It shows the level of
coordination and trust between us,” Chaudhary tells Outlook.
In recent weeks, the opposition has been exhibiting a new
sense of common purpose. Karnataka had already taken
this to another level. As a JD(S) government backed by the
Congress took charge, a row of beaming opposition leaders
stood hand-in-hand during the swearing-in ceremony for a
picture-perfect shot, highlighted by one particular frame of
UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi and BSP supremo Mayawati
hugging, their heads touching in affection, their faces lit up
by 100-watt smiles.
It was a mighty show of unity, and a rare one in this phase
of Indian politics, dominated as it is by the colossus-like
figure of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. In fact, it’s this
very electoral domination of the BJP that has brought about
a willingness to coordinate on the part of non-BJP forces.
Despite the warm pictures, it’s not exactly camaraderie.
Many of them, in fact, have been rivals for long—and are
still a tad wary of each other. But there’s a touch of elation
in having finally cracked the big riddle of the last few years:
how to stop the BJP juggernaut? That picture was by itself
the template: in togetherness lay salvation.
Of course, that very multitude also poses the next riddle.
Who can be ‘the’ man? Or indeed, woman? India’s people
36 OUTLOOK 18 June 2018
STRATEGY IS EVERYTHING Amit Shah insists the op
need to be offered an alternative to Modi. He, after all, still
possesses that X-factor. So who among the non-BJP leaders
can be offered as a viable, even desirable PM? Scan the opp­
osition horizons, and there’s no dearth of wannabes. Rahul
Gandhi, Mayawati, Akhilesh, Tejashwi, N. Chandrababu
Naidu…it’s a list long enough to fill a putative cabinet.
It’s not exactly a hypothetical question. Till this point,
Elections 2019 had loomed as an existential moment for
opposition parties. They could have been pardoned for reg­
arding it with dread. In the last four years, the country had
been painted saffron almost all over, except in what they
are calling the ‘Coromandel’ belt. As the “election-winning
mac­hine” perfected by BJP president Amit Shah seemed to
“As of now, the
opposition doesn’t
seem to have a strategy,
character or brains.
It’s a default selection
of grouses and collection
of grouches.”
Shiv Visvanathan
Sociologist