The initiative was taken by Samajwadi Party national president and former chief minister Akhilesh Yadav who had announced the willingness to take support from BSP even before the results were out.

As a part of the strategy, Akhilesh Yadav first consolidated his position in party as national president and changed the party constitution to extend the term of the office-bearers to five years.

He is regularly meeting party leaders and workers not only from UP but from other states. He dissolved those units in UP who were responsible for sabotaging the poll prospects of official candidates.

Akhilesh Yadav succeeded in getting his own nominee Ram Govind Choudhry appointed as the Leader of the Opposition.

However, Akhilesh Yadav’s father and founder of the party Mulayam Singh Yadav and his younger brother Shivpal Yadav wanted Mohd Azam Khan as Leader of Opposition.

Mulayam Singh Yadav has also scoffed at Akhilesh’s grand alliance talk, saying that the Samajwadi Party’s drubbing in the UP Assembly polls should be a reason for no alliance in the future. “We are capable on our own”, was the response from Netaji, who wasn’t in the least pleased with Akhilesh’s rebel act just prior to the UP polls.

Akhilesh Yadav recently visited New Delhi and met prominent leaders of the opposition parties and tried to convince them the need for forming grand alliance to stop BJP at both the state level as well as at the national level.

The political observers feel that Akhilesh Yadav is emerging as a big leader at the national scene to fill up the space of his father Mulayam Singh Yadav who is being perceived to be closer to BJP through his actions.

Akhilesh Yadav is also in touch with left parties and their leaders for taking them in grand alliance. Akhilesh Yadav is in constant touch with CPI national secretary Atul Anjan other important leaders from the Left parties.

The biggest test before Akhilesh Yadav is to join hands with other likeminded parties to stop split of non-BJP votes in forthcoming by-elections for Assembly and Lok Sabha seats.

If the grand alliance were formed before elections take place for the seats vacated by UP chief minister Yogi Adityanath and his two deputy chief ministers Keshav Prasad Maurya and Dinesh Sharma it would be difficult for BJP to ensure victory for its candidates.

It would be worth mentioning here that sitting chief minister TN Singh was defeated by Congress candidate Ram Krishna Dwivedi from Maniram in Gorakhpur district in the early seventies.

BSP supremo Mayawati’s speech on Ambedkar Jayanti saying that she was willing to accept support from Samajwadi Party to stop BJP has made it clear that she was willing to join grand alliance for which initiative was taken by Akhilesh Yadav and supported by Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee.

The BSP, she said, had no reservations in taking the help of anti-BJP parties in its fight against EVM tampering and the BJP. 'It is democracy which comes first... we have to keep democracy alive,' she told her party workers in Lucknow on Friday.

It may be mentioned here that Samajwadi Party and BSP had joined hands in 1993 to stop BJP and that combination was voted to power.

Bihar former chief minister and RJD president Lalu Prasad Yadav has been saying for quite some time about unity of Samajwadi Party and Mayawati with other like-minded parties to stop BJP.

Although the normal practice is to give a new government six months time to settle down, but Akhilesh Yadav never leaves any opportunity to criticise Yogi government’s decisions. (IPA Service)