Fall of dynasts spells end of Mandal politics in UP, Bihar

This was the first Lok Sabha election where Akhilesh Yadav and Tejashwi Yadav were contesting without Mulayam Singh Yadav and Lalu Yadav in picture. The onus was on them to keep their vote banks together. But the trends of the results show that both have failed measurably in attracting the voters in their respective states.

Akhilesh Yadav did forge an alliance with BSP and RLD to have the caste arithmetic in their favour. However the trends show that together the grand alliance is leading in 20 seats out of which SP is leading in only 8 seats. Among the Yadav family members, Akshay Yadav and Dharmendra Yadav are trailing from Firozabad and Badaun. These are family bastions and the trends indicate that the party has lost support in their homeland.

In Bihar, where Tejashwi was leading the campaign for the grand alliance the party couldn’t gain the voters confidence and the party is struggling to get two seats out of 40 while no other allies are leading on any other seat. If this trends continues this would be the worst performance of the RJD in the state and the onus lies on Tejashwi Yadav. The only relief for him that his sister Misa Bharti is leading from Patliputra constituency in the trends.


The mandate in UP and Bihar has completely neglected the dynastic politics and caste alliance. In Bihar Tejashwi’s entire campaign was on how his father Lalu Yadav has been wrongly imprisoned because he is a backward. But that didn’t seem to woo the voters. In UP, Akhilesh sacrificed enough seats to make way for the BSP in the alliance. However the voters didn’t go with the opposition formulation.