January 22, 2026

Akhilesh Yadav Must Keep The Yogi Government On Its Toes

By Sunil Garodia
First publised on 2022-03-26 12:32:05

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Editor-in-Chief of indiacommentary.com. Current Affairs analyst and political commentator.

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If the BJP has won UP fair and square, it can also be said the Akhilesh Yadav and Samajwadi Party (SP) also won. They won in the sense that after 5 years, the state will have a strong opposition - one which can keep the Yogi Adityanath government on its toes by asking questions in the assembly and raising pertinent issues.

That Akhilesh Yadav is seized of the matter and knows that the people have supported his alliance is clear from the fact that he resigned his Lok Sabha seat and will take over the mantle of the leader of the opposition in the state assembly. This is a wise decision as the SP needs to build on the public support and it can only be done if its most popular leader is in the assembly.

Having fought the elections against the BJP on the plank of unemployment and inflation, SP must now play the part of a responsible opposition by continuing to highlight the plight of urban and rural youth and migrant workers who returned and are not getting jobs. It must hold the government accountable for woeful health services and glaring deficiencies in the education system. In short, it must not let the administration take things easy.

These elections have made UP move towards a bipolar system with the BJP and the SP becoming the fulcrums of two major alliances with smaller parties. In the process, the SP has increased its vote share to 32.06% which is 11% more than what it got in 2017. Although this increase was due to shifting of voters from Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and Congress, it does signify a consolidation of opposition votes and the fact that the voters have recognized the SP as the main opposition. This is a huge victory for Akhilesh Yadav and he must build on that.