The Samajwadi Party lost its strongholds to the BJP in the byelections for Azamgarh and Rampur
After the Samajwadi Party lost its strongholds to the BJP in the byelections for Azamgarh and Rampur, Asaduddin Owaisi intensified his criticism of Akhilesh Yadav on Sunday. The former chief minister, who had emerged as the BJP’s main rival in vital UP state polls, had been unable to prevent the ruling party from winning the elections in February and March. However, he had emphasised the SP’s assembly vote total’s notable improvement.
“Akhilesh Yadav is so arrogant. His father (former UP chief minister Mulayam Singh Yadav) was a member of parliament from that seat. Then he got elected. He does not even go there to tell people why he was not contesting from the seat,” the Hyderabad MP told ANI.
“The Uttar Pradesh by-poll results show Samajwadi Party is inacapable of defeating BJP… they don’t have intellectual honesty. Minority community shouldn’t vote for such incompetent parties. Who is responsible for BJP’s win,.. now, whom will they name as B-team, C-team,” he added.
The allusion to the “B-team” was likely made in reference to Mayawati’s remarks, who has been criticising Akhilesh Yadav and others for labelling her the “B-team” of the BJP due to her party’s disappointing performance in the state elections.
Months after Akhilesh Yadav decided to take the opposition’s lead in the state assembly and resigned from his Lok Sabha seat, by-elections were held in Azamgarh. Azam Khan, the head of the SP, has maintained a foothold in Rampur and has been charged in numerous cases by the state police. However, the SP refers to it as “vendetta politics.”
Dinesh Lal Yadav, a Bhojpuri actor-singer and BJP candidate known as “Nirahua,” won the Azamgarh seat, while Ghanshyam Lodhi, another BJP candidate, ousted the Samajwadi Party from the Rampur parliamentary seat.
