Samajwadi Party fails to regain Yadav land from BJP in Uttar Pradesh
The BJP won 18 of the 29 seats in the Yadav land spread over the eight districts of Mainpuri, Etawah, Etah, Kasganj, Firozabad, Auriya, Kannauj and Farrukhabad.
Despite predictions of its resurgence, the Samajwadi Party (SP) failed to regain its traditional stronghold, known as Yadav land, from the BJP in the 2022 Uttar Pradesh assembly polls.
The BJP won 18 of the 29 seats in the Yadav land spread over the eight districts of Mainpuri, Etawah, Etah, Kasganj, Firozabad, Auriya, Kannauj and Farrukhabad. The BJP ally Apna Dal (Soneylal) also bagged one seat. The Samajwadi Party had to be content with just 10 seats.
The BJP won all the seats in Etah, Farrukhabad, and Kannauj districts. The SP did not make a clean sweep in any district. Yadavs are the single largest community of voters in these districts.
In 2012, the Samajwadi Party won 25 of the 29 seats in Yadav land and the BJP bagged only one seat. The BSP won one and two seats went to independents.
Riding the Modi wave in 2017, the BJP demolished the Yadav citadel, winning 23 of the 29 seats while the Samajwadi Party could bag only six seats.
In 2022, the BJP retained its hold in these districts. This happened despite the Samajwadi Party and its supporters claiming that their party will sweep the Yadav-land. They also said the party was resurgent and mentioned that SP chief Akhilesh Yadav contested his first assembly polls from Karhal in Mainpuri district, which is part of the Yadav belt.
They also claimed that the Yadav family feud was over. As a result, the BJP will be wiped out from the region under the Akhilesh-Shivpal influence, they precited. But the results turned out to be otherwise. Not even Samajwadi Party founder Mulayam Singh Yadav’s appeal to make the SP win the entire region and the state could work. Mulayam had campaigned for Akhilesh in Karhal.
“The vote percentage in the state and the region are indication enough that barring Muslims, no caste or community group voted for the SP en bloc. In 2017, the BJP won the Yadav-land under the combined effect of the Modi wave and the Yadav family feud. But the BJP, with its management and projections done efficiently, managed a good performance. It seems that the BJP government’s free ration or attack on parivarvad (dynastic politics), law and order of the previous SP regimes worked against the Samajwadi Party despite Akhilesh’s hard work. He was a lone star campaigner against the BJP’s galaxy,” said Subhash Tripathi, a veteran journalist and political observer.
Neither Akhilesh Yadav nor Shivpal Yadav could attain a “one lakh” victory margin while winning their respective seats — Karhal (in Mainpuri) and Jaswant Nagar (in Etawah). Shivpal’s victory margin was 90,970 and Akhilesh’s 67,504 votes.
