The Samajwadi Party’s victory saga — the party got the highest-ever tally since its formation in 1992 — has been written with a script stolen, ironically, from the BSP.
The SP sensed the anti-BSP mood and began positioning itself against the establishment almost two years before the elections were held.
Its district units fought pitched battles with the BSP at the slightest pretext, its cadres invited physical action and its leaders happily went to jail in almost every agitation.
The message to the people was clear — if there was any force that could take on the might of the BSP, it was the Samajwadi Party.
As the election unfolded, the Samajwadi Party campaign against BSP became more and more aggressive, with SP leaders promising to send Ms Mayawati and her corrupt ministers to jail and converting her memorials into hospitals and schools.
To win over young people, the SP put Akhilesh Yadav in the driver’s seat while Mulayam Singh Yadav took on the strategist’s role.