Akhilesh and other UP leaders whose political future hinges on LS polls

Lucknow, Feb 4: The upcoming Lok Sabha polls are crucial for the political survival of leaders who are hoping to reverse their fortunes and emerge as game changers in the elections.

Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav faces the biggest challenge of his career as party leader this time.

This will be the first major election that SP will face after the demise of party patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav. Under the leadership of Akhilesh, the SP has been facing a series of defeats.

Akhilesh’s attempts to forge alliance with Congress (2017) and BSP (2019) have failed to yield results.

The Lok Sabha polls pose a major challenge for him, especially when it comes to resurrecting his own party.

Om Prakash Rajbhar, president of the Suheldev Bhartiya Samaj Party (SBSP), is confident of emerging stronger after the general elections.

Since the past six months, he is all dressed up and has nowhere to go. His induction in the Yogi Adityanath cabinet has been unduly delayed and if sources are to be believed, the chief minister is unwilling to take Rajbhar back on board.

One of the best known motormouths of state politics in recent times, Rajbhar has made several personal comments against Yogi Adityanath and the latter is not known to forgive easily.

If Rajbhar fails to make it to the council of ministers before elections, he will lose his clout as an OBC leader of substance. He has already burnt his bridges with the Samajwadi Party and even though he has softened his stand towards his parent party -- the BSP -- chances of his return are bleak since Mayawati rarely takes back expelled leaders.

Rajbhar is one leader in Uttar Pradesh whose future hangs on the 2024 polls.

Another leader who faces his biggest test is Akash Anand, nephew of BSP president Mayawati.

A political greenhorn, he has been named as the political successor of the BSP president and now holds the responsibility of bringing the BSP back to the centre stage of UP politics.

Akash, so far, has not shown any signs of his being a vibrant leader and his role is restricted to a few tweets. As of now, the BSP stands completely isolated and it will take nothing short of a miracle to catapult the party back into reckoning.

Akash Anand will be able to establish his acceptability in the party only if he manages to reboot the BSP in the upcoming polls.

Dr Sanjay Nishad, UP minister, also has much at stake in the Lok Sabha elections.

His son Parveen Nishad is a BJP MP from Sant Kabir Nagar and younger son Srawan Nishad is BJP MLA from Chauri-Chaura in Gorakhpur.

Sanjay Nishad has promised his community SC status and if he cannot fulfil the promise before the polls, he will face rough weather in the same.

A bureaucrat-turned-actor-turned politician whose fate will be decided by the Lok Sabha polls is Abhishek Singh, a 2011 batch IAS officer who recently resigned from service.

Abhishek, in between tried his luck in films, did a few music videos and is now back in UP to try his fortune in politics. Recently he issued a full-page advertisement in a local daily, making it clear that he had chosen Jaunpur as his Lok Sabha seat.

Singh is offering free bus rides to Ayodhya in ‘Jaunpur Nishad Rath’ to the local people -- a clear indication of him angling for a ticket from Jaunpur.

If Singh does not make it to the Lok Sabha, he will have to look for another option as far as career is concerned.