Uttar Pradesh chief minister Akhilesh Yadav dislodged his father Mulayam Singh Yadav as Samajwadi Party president and installed himself as the boss at an emergency meeting. While this caps ends months of acrimonious fights, the party has split into two separate entities.
Although Mulayam indicated his willingness to fight, this cannot blur the fact that he is no longer the party boss. Worse for him, the Election Commission is likely to freeze the `bicycle' symbol as it doesn't have enough time to verify the claim of either of the two factions as to which one is real. The freezing of the symbol would further erode any leverage Mulayam has left with the MLAs, and level the playing field between him and his son.
Akhilesh took the precaution of not appearing to be ungrateful to his father by making Mulayam the mentor, but this would hardly mask the fact that the party the 77-year-old former UP CM founded has gone out of his control. MSY showed he wasn't ready to give up by sacking cousin Ram Gopal, who had called the meeting, for the third time in less than two months, and declared it “unconstitutional.” Mulayam then called his own national meet on January 5, possibly the last bout of his political career.
The special convention called by Ram Gopal also moved two other proposals; one, Mulayam remain SP's top leader; and, second, Amar Singh be sacked from the primary membership of the party and Shivpal Yadav be removed as SP state president.
The convention, presided over by SP vice president Kiranmoy Nanda, a known Mulayam loyalist, was attended by other confidants: Naresh Agarwal, Reoti Raman Singh, Ahmed Hasan and Awdhesh Prasad - all subsequently `expelled' by Shivpal, who flashed a letter purportedly signed by Mulayam, for anti-party activities. Agarwal, however, said, “Mulayam Singh Yadav ji does not have the authority to sack me. He is no longer party president.”
