What is Akhilesh's cluster formula, which made him the man of the match in UP, SP got the biggest victory after 20 years
Akhilesh Yadav's formula for the Lok Sabha elections was PDA. He had announced this about seven months ago. A plan was made to contest the elections by bringing together backward, Dalit and minority communities. Akhilesh Yadav distributed tickets on this formula. This time the age-old social equation of 'MY' was discarded.
For the first time, Akhilesh Yadav stayed at his home on the day of the results. He did not go to the Samajwadi Party office even once, but he remained in constant touch with the party leaders and workers. He kept giving instructions from his home. This continued till late at night. In Farrukhabad, the Samajwadi Party lost by about two thousand votes. The party workers felt that there was rigging. It was Akhilesh who calmed everyone down. The 32-year-old Samajwadi Party has had the best performance in the Lok Sabha elections.
Under the leadership of Akhilesh Yadav, the party won 38 seats. In the 2004 elections, the Samajwadi Party had won 35 seats. At that time, Mulayam Singh Yadav was the leader of the party. After losing four consecutive elections, questions were being raised about the leadership of Akhilesh Yadav, but in this Lok Sabha election, the same Akhilesh Yadav is the man of the match. On his strength, he stopped the BJP from reaching the majority figure.
Akhilesh Yadav's formula for this election was PDA. He had announced it about seven months ago. A plan was made to contest the elections by bringing together backward, Dalit and minority communities. Akhilesh felt that in the name of minorities, BJP can create communal polarization in the name of Muslims.
Then he sometimes called the A of PDA as upper caste and sometimes half the population meaning women. Akhilesh Yadav distributed tickets on this formula. This time the age-old social equation of 'MY' was discarded. Muslims and Yadavs will remain with the Samajwadi Party in any case. Based on this thinking, Akhilesh Yadav changed his strategy in this election.
The focus remained on non-Yadav backward and Dalits
Akhilesh Yadav's entire focus is now on non-Yadav backward and Dalits. He had tried this in the last assembly elections as well. But this time while doing social engineering, Akhilesh applied the cluster formula. Meaning, that a different social equation was created for each area. On one Lok Sabha seat, a Patel candidate was given, and on the adjacent seats, according to the population, Nishad, Bind, and Kushwaha candidates were given. This double dose of social engineering was a super hit. He gave a Nishad candidate from Gorakhpur against Maneka Gandhi. Ram Bhual Nishad defeated Maneka Gandhi in Sultanpur. Akhilesh did many similar experiments.
Selection of candidates ensured victory
Faizabad Lok Sabha seat is not safe. But here they gave a ticket to a Dalit leader Awadhesh Pasi. Ayodhya is also in the Faizabad Lok Sabha seat. BJP had consecrated Ram temple a big election issue. But in Faizabad, some other slogans were being raised. Neither Ayodhya nor Kashi, this time Awadhesh Pasi. Samajwadi Party candidate Awadhesh Prasad belongs to the Pasi community. There was a Kurmi candidate in Ambedkar Nagar's seat next to Faizabad and a Nishad candidate in Sultanpur. People from backward, extremely backward, and Dalit communities along with Muslims and the Yadav community ensured the victory of Awadhesh Prasad from Faizabad.
Allied with four parties
BJP has allied with four parties in UP to expand the social equation. RLD for Jat votes, Nishad Party for Nishad votes, Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party for Rajbhar votes and Apna Dal for Patel Kurmi votes. Akhilesh Yadav had also made a similar formula in the last assembly elections. But this time his strategy had changed. Instead of outsiders, he had prepared to try his people. Pallavi Patel had left him. In such a situation, Akhilesh Yadav gave tickets to people of non-Yadav backward communities this time. He gave tickets to 10 leaders of the Patel Kurmi community and 6 leaders of the Kushwaha-Shakya-Saini community. Similarly, he gave tickets to 5 candidates of Nishad caste. Among Dalits, he gave tickets to 7 leaders of the Pasi community and 6 leaders of the Jatav community. Mayawati is from the Jatav community. 11 percent of Jatavs of UP have been voting for Mayawati for the last several years. But this time Akhilesh Yadav took a chance on them and he was successful too.
The issue of changing the constitution weighed heavily on the BJP
BJP tried a lot to trap Akhilesh Yadav in its game. There was a lot of controversy on why he would not go to the Ram Mandir's Praan Pratishtha ceremony. But this trick of the BJP did not work in the elections. Akhilesh Yadav remained firm on his pitch. He kept raising the issues of unemployment, inflation, and paper leaks. He kept promising to give data for free along with flour. Akhilesh Yadav and Rahul Gandhi turned BJP's slogan of crossing four hundred into a fight to save the Constitution. It spread in every village that if BJP forms the government then the Constitution will change. Reservation for Dalits and backward classes can end. From Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Sangh chief Mohan Bhagwat gave clarifications many times. But this thing had become ingrained in people's minds. This is the reason why Mayawati's voters also supported Akhilesh Yadav. This is a big turning point in UP politics. After the Akash Anand episode, BSP's image had become that of BJP's 'B' team to some extent. In such a situation, the alliance with Congress worked as icing on the cake.