A rejection of divisive politics: Akhilesh

Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav said on Thursday that the BJP’s defeat in the Kairana and Noorpur bypolls was a victory of social goodwill, social justice and legacy of Chaudhary Charan Singh, and a rejection of the party’s divisive politics.

Mr. Yadav said the farmers, the backward classes, the poor and the Dalits in the two constituencies had given a fitting reply to the BJP for cheating them with false promises. “This is the victory of the people who believe in peace and unity... and the beginning of the end of the arrogance of power,” he said.

In Kairana, the RLD’s Tabassum Hasan with 4,81,182 votes (51.2%) defeated the BJP’s Mriganka Singh, who got 4,36,564 votes (46.51%), by a margin of 44,618. Ms. Hasan is the wife of Munawwar Hasan, who was MP from both Kairana and Muzaffarnagar seats in 1996 and 2004. He died in a road accident in 2008.

In Noorpur, the SP’s Naim ul Hasan defeated the BJP’s Avani Singh by a thin margin of 5,662 votes. While Mr. Hasan got 94,875 votes (50.23%), Mr. Avani Singh polled 89,213 votes (47.23%).

Talking to reporters here, Mr. Yadav said the successive defeats of the BJP in Gorakhpur and Phulpur earlier were a “political signal” to the rest of the country. The farmers and labourers had indicated to the BJP that they wanted elections to be based on basic issues that concern them like sugarcane prices, employment and poverty and not divisive politics.

Asked about the role of the alliance behind the victory, Mr. Yadav said his party was playing the “same game” of social alliances that the BJP had played. He individually thanked all non-BJP parties for their support: the BSP, the RLD, the Congress, Nishad Party, AAP, Mahan Dal, the NCP, the Left parties and the Peace Party.

Asked if the grand alliance in U.P. would be replicated at the national level, Mr. Yadav was circumspect. “We are with other parties who are making such attempts. Our party will work when it can and where it has its organisation,” he said.