Will Mulayam Singh's remark on party's UP CM face trigger split in SP?
A split in the ruling Samajwadi Party now may not be unexpected, with party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav clearly indicating that his chief minister son Akhilesh Yadav may not be the party's chief ministerial candidate for the next state Assembly election four months from now.
Addressing a press conference here Friday, Mulayam said, "The newly elected legislators of the party will elect their leader after the elections".
He was replying to a pointed query on whether Akhilesh would continue to be showcased as the party's chief ministerial nominee at the 2017 Assembly elections. Mulayam went on to add: "Even the last election in 2012 was contested in my name; but it was only at the end that I decided to give the mantle of the chief minister to Akhilesh."
Such a remark would have been viewed as innocuous under normal circumstances. But it has stirred the hornet's nest now, largely on account of the recently surfaced feud within the ruling Yadav clan.
While Mulayam declared that the party would launch its poll campaign on November 5, which also marks completion of 25 years of the formation of Samajwadi Party, he did not clarify as to who would lead the campaign this time.
Significantly, this follows a declaration by Akhilesh Yadav that he would launch the party's election campaign independent of anybody else. "I think I will have to start the election campaign on my own, without waiting for anybody," he said in an exclusive interview to a national English daily on Thursday.
Yet, he exuded confidence of staging a comeback on the sheer strength of his achievements. "I have spent 14 years of my life in school and college hostels, where I learnt to handle precarious issues as also threats", he sought to point out. In addition, he said: "As a child, in the absence of anyone to give me a name, I had to acquire this name myself. So there is no reason why I would have any hitch in launching the party's poll campaign on my own."
The contradictory statements issued by the father and son have made it amply clear that the fissures, that became visible in the ruling clan a few months back, have now forged a deep divide. What had begun as differences between Akhilesh and his uncle Shivpal was now a sharp division between the young chief minister and his father.
Among those who appear to have ganged up alongwith Shivpal against Akhilesh were the likes of Amar Singh, Mulayam's second wife Sadhana Singh, who has her own axe to grind for her son Prateek, as also Mulayam's blue-eyed IAS officer Anita Singh, who has been holding the most powerful bureaucratic position of principal secretary to chief minister, much against the wishes of the CM Akhilesh Yadav himself. This entire lobby was often heard criticising Akhilesh and his development politics.
Contrary to Akhilesh's contention that the development work undertaken by him would sail him through at the 2017 state Assembly elections, this lobby felt that the measures undertaken by Akhilesh were either Lucknow-centric or urban-centric, which they would not be able translate into votes for the party.
On the other hand, Akhilesh was confident that proper showcasing of his achievements - be it speedy work on the Metro rail project in Lucknow, or completion of the Lucknow-Agra Expressway in record time, as also the international cricket stadium or development of a giant IT hub in the state capital - would make UP-wide impact.
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| Mulayam Singh Yadav's latest observation on the party's CM face may be another "self-goal". [Photo: Agencies] |
It was an open secret that until the return of Amar Singh to the party fold, Mulayam was often heard showering praise on his son for these very projects. Akhilesh left no stone unturned to oppose Amar's return into the party, where two other senior functionaries Azam Khan and Ram Gopal Yadav, too, had expressed their reservations against the move.
But Amar Singh moved heaven and earth to win over the support of Shivpal Yadav as well as Mulayam's second wife Sadhana and bureaucrat Anita Singh, who prevailed over Mulayam to usher the wily wheeler-dealer back on board. Barely had Akhilesh got over the shock, when Shivpal announced the merger of mafia don turned politician Mukhtar Ansari's Qaumi Ekta Dal (QED) with the Samajwadi Party. Akhilesh rose up in arms against the move and compelled the "chacha" to reverse the decision.
He might have been widely hailed for the stand he took on the issue, but chacha Shivpal was not amused. This time the chacha used his clout over elder brother Mulayam to get a highly tainted bureaucrat, Deepak Singhal, installed as chief secretary, when Akhilesh favoured a non-controversial officer with a clean image. A humbled Akhilesh took it lying down for a while before striking back by sacking not only Singhal but also the tainted mining minister Gayatri Prajapati, enjoying close proximity with both Mulayam and Shivpal.
Provoked by the son's unilateral decision, Mulayam ordered removal of Akhilesh as president of the party's state unit, that was entrusted to chacha Shivpal. In a knee-jerk reaction, Akhilesh stripped Shivpal of his most prized and lucrative portfolios - irrigation and public works. The high drama came to an end only after Akhilesh was driven against the wall to reverse some of these decisions. Shivpal got back his portfolios and Prajapati was re-inducted into the cabinet, albeit without the cash-rich mining portfolio.
Akhilesh was still under mounting pressure from this powerful lobby to re-appoint the controversial Singhal on the top bureaucratic job, when Mulayam dropped this bombshell, virtually denying him the chance to a second term, if the party were to be re-elected to power.
What the father does not seem to realise is that political analysts as well as various surveys carried out by pollsters see Akhilesh alone as the credible face of the party. It was a surge of the youth rooting for young Akhilesh that turned the tide in favour of Samajwadi Party in 2012, when the party bagged as many as 224 seats in the UP house of 403 - clearly beating Mulayam's own past records.
Analysts see Mulayam's latest observation on the party's chief ministerial face as another "self-goal" after a series of faux pas he had already committed.
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