Samajwadi Party turns a sitting duck

The time-line between the evening of December, 31, 2016 and the morning of January 1, 2017 is way too long. Ask Mulayam Singh Yadav, if you don't agree. One night was all that his ‘loyal’ son and political heir Akhilesh Yadav required to upstage him from his position and, perhaps from politics, forever.

Uttar Pradesh in general, and Samajwadi Party in particular, has been witnessing an ‘uncle’ war with Prof Ramgopal Yadav (cousin of Mulayam) and Shiv Lal Yadav (Mulayam’s younger brother) in an open battle for political one-upmanship. This has strained the father-son relations to such an extent that the party is in an avoidable turmoil.

There were no indications, whatsoever, that things would come to such a pass this Sunday. For, it was only on Saturday evening that the Muslim face of the Samajwadi Party, Azam Khan, almost succeeded in patching up the the father and son after the former expelled the Chief Minister and Ramgopal Yadav for six years.

The suspension itself sounded harsh to Akhilesh's followers as it was expected of Mulayam to resolve the crisis within the party and the family skillfully. Still, Akhilesh decided to strike, once for all and kicked out Amar Singh from the party and disenfranchised the UP State president, Shivpal Yadav by removing him from the post.

More shock was in store for Mulayam whose mantle also was snatched by the son "who has a great respect for him" when he anointed himself the chief of the party. Mulayam is the "Marg Darshak" now, a position that is currently being enjoyed by the elders of the BJP like LK Advani and Murali Manohar Joshi. In his own typical may Akhilesh;s terse message to his father is ‘ you have run out of utility. Hence retire and enjoy the warmth of the home this winter’.

Netaji’s response was subdued anyway. He called the meeting unconstitutional and expelled Ramgopal Yadav while also calling for a national convention of the party on Thursday. There is still a section that believes that this is all stage-managed by the father and son duo with an aim at drawing public attention and creating sympathy for Akhilesh.

"Both of them know that the party has to retain its youth base firmly to take on the BJP. Mulayam perhaps wanted to generate sympathy for Akhilesh and he did succeed when he expelled him from the party. But Bhayya (Akhilesh) is intelligent enough to know that Shivpal Yadav could always influence Netaji with Amar Singh in tow. That is why he showed them their place", party sources point out.

Whether this move will lead to a split in the party and the tussle would extend to retaining the ownership rights is to be seen. But, the bad blood has already damaged the party much. Whether it would go to polls as a single unit or not and in the company of the Congress or not, its minority voters have lost faith in it completely.

The minorities who had swung from the BSP towards the SP in the last elections seem to be of the view that even if the family patches up, it would only provide a suture de rapprochement with the wound still visible and hence would be difficult for them to sail with the ruling party this time around.

Party cadre is already split and two lists of candidates one prepared by Mulayam-Shivpal and the other by Akhilesh-Ramgopal - only means that the fight will continue till the very end of the vertical split. By the by, the Congress wanted to ally with the SP. Akhilesh had no problem with it, but Mulayam had. Akhilesh told his party leaders that the next three months would be quite challenging and they must be geared up to face it. He did not sound so very convincing.

By queering the pitch for his father who was aspiring to lead the country one day, Akhilesh has only ensured a level playing field for his opponents now which is no insignificant contribution of any ruling party in the rough and tumble of politics. It needs too many blessings of Lord Krishna whom Akhilesh keeps invoking during his campaigns to emerge unscathed. As things stand, Samajwadi Party is a sitting duck!

By W Chandrakanth