A day after the Samjawadi Party (SP) alliance was decimated in results announced on Saturday, party founder Mulayam Singh Yadav said "no one is responsible" for the defeat, reports The Times of India. "No one is responsible for the loss. This is the people's mandate," said Mulayam. Like his son, and SP chief Akhilesh yesterday, Mulayam couldn't resist adding, "The BJP has made lot of promises, let us see what they do now."
The SP founder also said that the loss doesn't mean the SP is gone forever. "Winning and losing is part of life. We have lost before and (have) come back to power," he said.
Yesterday, although Akhilesh was fairly gracious in defeat, he couldn't resist a few sarcastic comments aimed at the people of the state, who contrary to most expectations voted overwhelmingly for the BJP which swept the Uttar Pradesh polls+ with 324 of 403 seats. The SP-Congress combine won a dismal 54 seats. "I think the new government in power will work even better
than the SP. It's possible people didn't like the great Expressway we built and they voted for a bullet train. We built great roads may be the people of UP were not happy with that and want even better roads? Maybe the BJP will build even better roads," Akhilesh said.
"We waived Rs 16,000 crores of farmers' debt. Now I'm hoping the BJP waives debts of farmers all across India," he said.
The outgoing UP CM also said "votes aren't won by explaining things to people, they are won only by threatening people". He was insinuating the BJP threatened voters.
Akhilesh didn't blame his party's alliance with the Congress for the combine's defeat+ , but many did. Even SP founder Mulayam was against the electoral alliance with the Congress.
Some are also blaming, among other things, the SP's poor showing on the rift in Mulayam's family and consequentially in the party. Last September, it became public that Mulayam and his brother Shivpal Yadav were becoming rapidly estranged from Mulayam's son Akhilesh.
After several ups and down it appeared the rift couldn't be mended when the factions that supported Mulayam on the one hand and Akhilesh on the other, staked the claim for the 'cycle', the party's electoral symbol. The battle for the symbol went to the Election Commission (EC) which awarded the right to use the cycle to the Akhilesh faction. Earlier today, Akhilesh and Mulayam met with party workers and leaders and asked them to reach out to the people and strengthen the outfit, PTI reported. During the meet, Akhilesh told partymen that the SP was not only a party, but an ideology.