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Why Mulayam’s second wife chose to attack stepson Akhilesh Yadav now

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Sharat Pradhan
Sharat PradhanMar 08, 2017 | 12:16

Why Mulayam’s second wife chose to attack stepson Akhilesh Yadav now

When Mulayam Singh Yadav’s second wife Sadhana Gupta came out openly against her stepson Akhilesh Yadav in a TV interview on Tuesday, it was no surprise. Anyone familiar with the goings on in Uttar Pradesh’s ruling Yadav clan would have anticipated such a move. But the timing was surely unexpected.

Those closely following the family feud that at one point turned almost into a street fight before Akhilesh finally managed to emerge as the hero after upstaging his father from the party presidentship as also succeeding in the crucial battle for the party symbol — cycle — always knew that the war within was far from over.

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However, what was commonly believed that knives would be out against chief minister Akhilesh only if the poll verdict on March 11 were to go against him.

None could foresee that the salvo would be fired by none other than Sadhana well before that and precisely a few hours before the seventh and last phase of polling on March 8. How much it could damage Akhilesh’s party at the hustings could be anybody’s guess.

The only other occasion when she spoke out was on the day of the fourth found of polling on February 19, on being swarmed by TV cameras outside the polling booth in Saifai (the family home in Etawah) where the entire family had converged to cast their vote. But she was in a different mood then. Describing Akhilesh as her “elder son”, she made it a point to declare, “Akhilesh and Prateek are like my two eyes.”

Obviously, what became visible on March 7, was in sharp contrast to the façade she sought to put up a fortnight earlier. Sure enough, it could not have been without orchestration or design. After all Sadhana, who had always chosen to confine herself within the four walls of her husband’s fortress, and who had preferred to shun politics, was never expected to make her debut in politicking by taking on the stepson.

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While referring to the ouster of Mulayam Singh Yadav from the position of Samajwadi Party president , she did not mince words in pointing out, “that was extremely unfair to Netaji, who had not only built the party from a scratch, but also taken it to such heights that it had acquired a formidable status at the national level.” She went on to add, “and whatever happened with Shivpal was gross injustice; he too had sweated it out to assist Netaji in raising the party.”   

The pent-up urge to have her own son Prateek get his share in the political legacy of Mulayam was clearly coming out. For her, it was time to insure that Prateek, who had inherited untold wealth from the father, also gets a pie in the political inheritance. After all, political power alone gets you all the immunity from the laws when you acquire wealth from unknown sources.

When Prateek went about flaunting his newly acquired Rs5 crore Lamborgini on the streets of Lucknow, while campaigning for his wife Aparna, contesting for an assembly seat from the state capital, he disclosed how he had built a cluster of infrastructure companies. He attributed all his wealth to his status as a top builder.

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So what, if his Lamborgini was only an addition to his fleet of two Land Cruisers, a Porshe and a Merc.

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 If Akhilesh Yadav were to face defeat at the hustings, he would have to brace himself for a tougher battle.

Interestingly, the only known connection between him and the infrastructure industry was his sudden proximity with Lucknow’s top builder Sanjay Seth, who also soon became Mulayam’s blue-eyed boy. And if Mulayam handpicked Seth not only for the  party treasurer’s job, but was also given a Rajya Sabha berth, it could not have been without reason. After all, Seth was neither someone with the remotest background in politics nor any connection with the Samajwadi movement.

Having stuffed his coffers, it was time for Prateek to now demand his share in the political pie from elder brother Akhilesh. With Mulayam and Shivpal having exhausted their arsenals and a wily Amar Singh having already been discredited and shown the door, it was Sadhana’s turn to turn into a  “brahmastra” (masterstroke) against Akhilesh. And evidently, the timing could not have been more appropriate — with Akhilesh battling for his survival at the hustings.

So far, Akhilesh had been on a strong wicket as he was occupying the chief minister’s chair. Everyone gravitated towards his powerful position, while leaving Mulayam and Shivpal, sidelined, isolated and humbled.

However, if Akhilesh were to face defeat at the hustings, he would have to brace himself for a tougher battle — now fanned and fuelled by none other than Sadhana. While mastermind Shivpal would strategically take the back seat, an emotionally frail Mulayam was bound to easily play into the hands of an ambitious wife and a brother, who was waiting like a hawk to avenge his humiliation.

Last updated: March 09, 2017 | 11:52
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