Biggest shock was when the margin of founder of Samajwadi Party Mulayam Singh Yadav was reduced in Mainpuri which was considered to be pocket borrow of Yadav family.

Akhilesh Yadav got the rude shock when his wife Dimple lost in Kannauj and two cousins Akshay lost in Firozabad and Dharmendra Yadav was defeated in Badaun. It was very difficult to believe that Samajwadi Party could be defeated in these constituencies.

What could be more humiliation for Akhilesh Yadav who went ahead with the gathbandhan with BSP much against the wishes of his family especially his father Mulayam Singh? More so Akhilesh Yadav compromised so much that he was playing second fiddle to Mayawati to remain in the gathbandhan.

Mayawati selected all those constituencies where her party had good presence and left majority of rural constituencies making things more difficult for Samajwadi Party and Akhilesh Yadav. It was only due to alliance with Samajwadi Party and Akhilesh Yadav, BSP increased its tally from zero in 2014 Lok Sabha polls to 10 seats in 2019.

It was only when Muslims supported BSP candidates due alliance with SP which commands respect and support in minority community that BSP increased its tally to impressive 10 seats. Nobody is willing to believe charges of Mayawati that Yadav community failed to transfer votes to BSP candidates. The data reveal that Yadav community transferred it's vote share to BSP candidates.

On the other hand Samajwadi lost number of seats as Mayawati failed to get her dalits votes transferred to SP candidates. The study reveal that in those constituencies where there was no BSP candidate, the dalit voters went to BJP and other political parties for various considerations.

Mayawati has attempted to damage muslim support to Samajwadi by saying that Akhilesh Yadav had written to her during the elections that she should not give tickets to Muslims to prevent polarisation of Hindu community. BSP leader has also attempted to damage dalit support of Samajwadi Panty by saying that Akhilesh Yadav government was opposed to reservation in promotion.

Samajwadi Party was also damaged by Shivpal Yadav, younger brother of Mulayam Singh Yadav and uncle of Akhilesh Yadav who launched his party Pragatisheel Samajwadi Party and fielded candidates all over the state.

Enjoying support from BJP, Shivpal Yadav damaged Samajwadi Party in those constituencies where Yadav community played dominant role. Mayawati also charged that Shivpal Yadav damaged gathbandhan candidates.

Samajwadi Party announced that gathbandhan was a bad experiment and decided to contest by-elections for 11 assembly seats lying vacants after Lok Sabha polls as 11 MLAs made it to Parliament.

Presently, Samajwadi Party has not recovered from the shock as there has been no review meeting after the polls. Samajwadi Party national President Akhilesh Yadav has yet not convened meeting of senior party leaders or defeated candidates to discuss as what went wrong. More so Akhilesh Yadav has dissolved committee of media panelists so that there is no representation of party at any TV debate.
(IPA Service)