After showing initial enthusiasm over the Congress victory in Karnataka — describing it as a mandate for a “new India” against the divisive politics of the BJP — Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav’s decision to skip the swearing-in ceremony of the new Congress government on May 20 made it clear that any hope of a joint Opposition front against the BJP in Uttar Pradesh is a distant dream.
Mr. Yadav decided to tour eastern U.P. on Saturday and was scheduled to also meet the family members of late Minister Hari Shankar Tiwari — for decades, a bête noire of U.P. CM Yogi Adityanath — in Gorakhpur. The SP chief had to cancel this planned visit at the last moment due to a death in his family.
