Tejashwi predicts handsome victory of SP in UP; return of Akhilesh as CM

RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav on Monday predicted a resounding victory for the Samajwadi Party in Uttar Pradesh assembly polls and the return of Akhilesh Yadav as the Chief Minister.

The Bihar leader of the opposition shares ideological affinity as well as family ties with the former Uttar Pradesh chief minister, to whose nephew his younger sister is married.

Both SP and RJD draw their support base primarily from the OBCs and the Muslim community.

I think it is a one-sided contest in Uttar Pradesh. The people have decided to vote out Yogi Adityanath and the BJP and bring back Akhilesh Yadav and SP, Yadav told reporters when asked about the keenly watched elections in the adjoining state.

The BJP and the SP seem to be locked in a straight fight in Uttar Pradesh where the BSP seems to be on the wane and the Congress has been, for quite some time, a spent force.

The BJP had wrested power in 2017 when it staged a stunning comeback, after two decades of progressive decline. The party won more than 300 seats in the 403-member UP assembly.

The SP, which was then in power with Akhilesh Yadav as chief minister, got drubbed despite a hastily cobbled alliance with the Congress which was expected to offset the damage caused by revolt of Shipval Yadav, estranged younger brother of Samajwadi Party founder Mulayam Singh Yadav.