Samajwadi Party leaves Maha Vikas Aghadi, triggers political unrest in Maharashtra

Mumbai/Lucknow: The Samajwadi Party (SP) has broken ranks with the Maha Vikas Agadi (MVA) in Maharashtra on Saturday with its two MLAs taking oath in the assembly despite boycott of the oath-taking ceremony by MVA. The development comes amid growing dissonance within the INDI bloc nationwide on a host of issues and particularly following the Congress’s dismal performance in the assembly elections in Haryana and Maharashtra.
In another sign of fissures in the opposition party becoming apparent, the SP on Saturday backed Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee’s candidature for the leadership of the INDIA bloc.
SP’s Abu Azmi and Rais Shaikh were sworn in at the Maharashtra legislature, and Azmi said their party could no longer be with the MVA as Shiv Sena (UBT) now brandished its Hindutva credentials and said it was proud of those who had demolished the Babri mosque. a reference to Uddhav Thackeray’s post-election results declaration to his legislators to convey the party’s Hindutva message to the people and Uddhav aide Milind Narvekar’s MLC and Post on Babri.
While this development in itself is not a cause for concern for the MVA or the INDI bloc since the SP has only two legislators in Maharashtra, it highlights the larger issues within the group given the feud SP’s discreet relationship with the Uttar Pradesh Congress on a number of issues. and Mamata Banerjee’s statement on Friday, expressing frustration with the bloc’s coordination and leadership and offering to “lead” it herself.
Reacting to Uddhav Sena’s attempt to abandon the paler saffron hue it adopted in the MVA, Azmi, who leads the SP in Maharashtra, said that “after losing the elections, they changed d ‘ideology. If this continues, the MVA will not do it. be able to introduce yourself. SP won 8 seats and won 2. MVA fielded candidates against us for 7 seats. He told his workers to work on the Hindutva issue. demolished the Babri Mosque, which is considered a criminal activity by the Supreme Court, on December 6, a black day, we are congratulated. The SP cannot work with such a party. I don’t think we can work within the MVA. secular. How can we work with a party that speaks a community language?
Azmi and Shaikh complained that MVA did not discuss seat-sharing with the SP in the assembly elections, but they still supported its demand to do away with EVMs and hold ballot-based elections.
Azmi said he would tell his party leader Akhilesh Yadav that the SP could not stay in the MVA and that he was “sure” Akhilesh would approve. “Now the Congress and Sharad Pawar must think about the possibility of forming an alliance with people who speak such (communal) language,” he said.
SP national spokesperson Rajendra Chaudhary told TOI, “A final decision in this regard (leaving the MVA) will soon be taken by national president Akhilesh Yadav, but there is no denying that the party has not got the support he expected from the Sena (UBT) in 2017. in the Maharashtra polls, we still managed to win two seats. If MVA had helped us, we could have gotten more.
On Mamata’s offer to lead the INDIA bloc if necessary, Chaudhary said SP and Akhilesh Yadav shared a special bond with her. “The party and its national president will support Mamata Banerjee in whatever she does,” he said.
The feud between the SP and Congress has been brewing since the recent UP Assembly polls, in which the SP adopted a take-it-or-take approach, and it has been exacerbated by the seating arrangement issue in Lok Sabha.
Barely a day ago, the SP expressed its resentment over the Congress’s “inaction” after its Dalit face Awadhesh Prasad was relegated from the top rank to the second rank in the LS. Senior Congress functionaries say this would not have been possible without the opposition leader’s consent.
In the bypolls in the state of UP, buoyed by its fairly good showing in the LS elections, the Congress was eyeing to win a large chunk of the nine seats to be contested. However, SP left its alliance partner with only two, leading the Congress to completely abandon its claims. The two had a similar “tug-of-war” in the 2023 state parliamentary elections, when Congress politician Kamal Nath’s hold, ‘Akhilesh Vakhilesh’, sparked resentment between the parties.
Even after the bypolls, many SP MLAs from UP reportedly expressed their displeasure to their party leaders over the blatant silence that the Congress had maintained when the party raised the issue of anomalies.
“When Akhilesh Yadav sought time from the President and raised the issue of barring party MPs and MLAs from visiting Sambhal, the Congress staged a protest against Adani outside Parliament. As the leader opposition, Rahul Gandhi should have taken up the issue with the President,” said an SP MP.
“Though the Congress maintained a studied silence when the SP raised the issue of Sambhal violence in Parliament, a day later Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi themselves visited Sambhal. What are we supposed to read here ?” asked the MP.
On Friday, on the occasion of the Babri demolition anniversary, Sena’s (UBT) Narvekar had posted a photo of late Sena chief Balasaheb Thackeray on X. ‘I am proud of those who did it’ , the message read, quoting Balasaheb Thackeray. with a photo of Babri being demolished. The post also contained photos of Uddhav Thackeray and Aaditya Thackeray.
Shaikh said he condemned Narvekar’s message. “Sena (UBT) enjoyed enormous support from secular voters in the last two elections (LS and State). The glorification of a dark day in Indian history is unjustified,” a- he declared.