Mulayam defends son, says no one person responsible for SP’s defeat

SP leader Mulayam Singh Yadav (in pic) on Sunday defended his son Akhilesh Yadav after the party's humiliating loss in the Uttar Pradesh assembly elections, saying “no one person is responsible for the defeat”.

“No one person is responsible for the defeat. We failed to convince voters,” Mulayam, who was ousted by Akhilesh as party chief after the power tussle in the family, told reporters here.

“Everyone is responsible for the loss. A single person cannot be blamed,” he said on arriving at Saifai, his native village, for Holi.

“It was people's inclination towards BJP as it has made a lot of promises. Let us see how many promises they fulfill,” Mulayam said.

Mulayam's brother Shivpal, who had fallen out with Akhilesh ahead of the polls, had earlier in the day said the party would analyse the reasons behind its poor performance in the polls.

“In politics, you win and lose. SP has its orgins in struggle and we will struggle again and win,” he said here. The BJP emerged as the single largest party in UP with 312 seats while its allies Apna Dal (Soneylal Patel) and Suheldev Bhartiya Samaj Party bagged nine and four seats respectively.

The Samajwadi Party was relegated to a distant second with 47 seats and its ally, the Congress won seven seats.

Meanwhile, the reverberations of BJP's electoral victory on Saturday will be felt far beyond UP—in the hallowed halls of Rajya Sabha and the grand old Rashtrapati Bhavan.

Along the way, the political career of maverick BSP leader Mayawati, whose party could clinch a measly 19 of the 403 assembly seats in UP, also looks like having received a shock.

The party's victory in Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand has ensured that its share in the electoral college, which would elect the next President, goes up significantly.