Akhilesh sees tie-up with BSP as a trial that didn’t triumph

No clear signal: BSP leader Mayawati’s silence on the matter added to the speculation. 

The “path in politics” is “open” for his party, he claims

Samajwadi Party (SP) president Akhilesh Yadav on Wednesday equated his party’s gathbandhan (alliance) with the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) in Uttar Pradesh to a “trial” that didn't succeed and declared that the “path in politics” was “open” for his party.

“It’s fine, trials happen. Sometimes you don't succeed. But at least you come to know of the weaknesses,” he told reporters at an Eid-ul-Fitr event in Lucknow.

Mr.Yadav said if his party was contesting the coming bypolls alone, he would discuss that with his colleagues and chart out a strategy that would also bring the “Samajwadi people” to power in 2022.

“As far as the question of alliance and contesting alone goes, now the path in politics is open,” he said.

The SP chief, however, kept the window for compromise open, just like BSP chief Mayawati did a day earlier by praising him and his wife Dimple Yadav personally and asserting that their personal relationship would never end despite the “political compulsions” of putting the political alliance on hold.

Mr. Yadav said, “I can assure you what is said for honourable Mayawatiji on the first day, in the first press conference, that her honour will be my honour, even today I say the same thing.”

Mayawati’s announcement

On Tuesday, Ms. Mayawati stumped everyone by announcing that she would go it alone in the bypolls coming up in the State after 11 Assembly seats were vacated following the entry of the sitting MLAs to the Lok Sabha.

Ms. Mayawati claimed that the Yadavs had deserted the SP and hurt the alliance's prospects and issued an ultimatum to the SP chief to train his workers to be “missionary” like the BSP cadre, for a revival of the alliance. She also said“there is no breakup of the alliance yet.”