Lucknow, May 24 (IANS): The defeat of three members of the Samajwadi Party -- Dimple Yadav, Dharmendra Yadav and Akshay Yadav -- is perhaps the biggest jolt that SP chief Akhilesh Yadav has received in recent times.
Dimple Yadav lost in Kannauj, Dharmendra Yadav lost in Badaun and Akshay Yadav lost in Ferozabad. All three were sitting MPs in the 16th Lok Sabha.
The results of the Lok Sabha elections clearly indicate that the Samajwadi Party, despite its alliance with BSP, had emerged as a major loser. The party had won five seats within the family in 2014 and the tally went up to 8 seats last year when SP won by-elections in Gorakhpur, Phulpur and Kairana.
In the just concluded election, SP is back with five seats. The party has won two for the family -- Mulayam Singh Yadav in Mainpuri and Akhilesh Yadav in Azamgarh. Three other candidates who have won are Azam Khan in Rampur, Shafiqur-rehman Warq in Sambhal and S.T. Hasan in Moradabad. The three candidates outside the family are all Muslims.
A senior SP leader, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said on Friday: "The alliance has proved to be a horrible mistake and it did not percolate down to the grassroots level. We stood our ground in the Modi wave of 2014 but this time, there is nothing to feel good about.
"Senior party leaders have lost elections and criticism will soon begin against the decision to ally with BSP which has availed the advantage of the alliance."
The Bahujan Samaj Party, on the other hand, has managed to revive itself with the alliance. The party which had not won even a single seat in 2014, has won ten seats this time.
The party has won Ambedkar Nagar, Amroha, Ghazipur, Ghosi, Jaunpur, Lalganj, Nagina, Saharanpur, Bijnore and Shravasti.
It is clear that the Samajwadi Party did transfer its votes to BSP on these seats but the BSP vote did not get transferred to SP candidates.
Another major casualty of the alliance has been the Rashtriya Lok Dal. The party contested three seats-Baghpat, Muzaffarnagar and Mathura and has lost all three. Chaudhary Ajit Singh and his son Jayant Chaudhary are among the losers.