UP polls 2017: how Akhilesh Yadav’s rise reshaped the BSP-BJP contest

India वोट Kar | February 23, 2017

A column published during the 2017 Uttar Pradesh Assembly election campaign looked at how the race for power in the state had shifted in the months before polling, and argued that Akhilesh Yadav had emerged from a family feud in full control of the Samajwadi Party.

The contest six months earlier

According to the column, six months before the election the fight was widely viewed as a two-way battle between the Bahujan Samaj Party led by Mayawati and the BJP, which governs at the centre. It said the BJP’s prospects had weakened somewhat after its state vice-president, Dayashankar Singh, made remarks about Mayawati that were seen as inappropriate. At that stage, the column noted, the ruling Samajwadi Party was generally regarded as out of contention.

Akhilesh takes charge

The column argued that a sudden run of dramatic events inside the Samajwadi Party’s ruling family changed this picture. Akhilesh Yadav, once mocked as a “half CM” who answered to the party’s senior figures, became both chief minister in his own right and the party’s leader.

Those senior figures were named as his father Mulayam Singh Yadav, his uncles Shivpal Yadav and Ram Gopal Yadav, and the veteran Azam Khan. The column said many had expected party workers to back Shivpal, because Mulayam was openly siding with his brother. Instead, it argued, Akhilesh proved them wrong and became the party’s undisputed choice for chief minister, while Shivpal and even Mulayam were sidelined. The column described the episode as a quiet coup by a sitting ruler who had freed himself from the old guard.

What happened next

When the 2017 Uttar Pradesh results came in, the BJP won 312 seats, the Samajwadi Party 47 and the BSP 19. Yogi Adityanath became Chief Minister after the election.

Originally published on 23 February 2017. Rewritten on 9 October 2026.