Unlike Cong tie-up, MSY didn’t object to this one

LUCKNOW: Samajwadi Party patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav’s “silent” support to the tie-up with Mayawati’s BSP proved crucial to consolidating his party’s position in the bypolls.

Mulayam, who had been vocal against the SP-Congress alliance for the 2017 assembly elections, chose to keep quiet over his son mending fences with BSP. Political observers saw Mulayam’s silence as approval of Akhilesh’s endeavours to stitch up an alliance with BSP, which was seen as mission impossible in political circles till recently.

In the run-up to the 2017 assembly polls, Mulayam had repeatedly raised questions about his son and SP chief Akhilesh Yadav joining hands with Congress. Political observers said Mulayam’s disapproval made his supporters in the party look for other options. Eventually, the SP-Congress combination failed to work. But the situation was not the same when it came to the SPBSP tie-up. Mulayam never objected to it.

As Samajwadi Party emerged victorious in the Gorakhpur and Phulpur bypolls on Wednesday, not only senior leaders, even workers of the two parties were convinced the ‘bua-bhatija’ camaraderie had paid off and the prospects of an SP-BSP alliance ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha polls appeared stronger than before.