Post lok Sabha election drubbing, Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav is pondering as with whom he will sit in Parliament this time and how he would tackle Narendra Modi in Parliament because he would be heading a team of novices who do not know how to speak Samajwadi Party which had 21 seats in last lok Sabha had won just five seats this time. Mulayam won two seats while his daughter-in law Dimple and nephews Dharmendra and Akshay are other winners.
In his meeting with legislators here on Friday Mulayam wondered aloud as how he would tackle communal forces led by Narendra Modi in the lok Sabha.
“Dimple can’t speak, neither can Akshay Yadav, who is new to Parliament. Only Dharmendra Yadav and I have to take on Modi in Parliament,” Mulayam Singh reportedly said in the meeting.
A legislator who attended the meeting told The Pioneer that Mulayam Singh time and again talked about lack of strength in lok Sabha. “With whom will I sit in Parliament,IJ” he even asked.
“With whom I will discuss the issues which need early attention of the party leaders. Who are there … only these people,” he said.
In the 15th lok Sabha Reoti Raman Singh, a seasoned campaigner was the chief whip of the party and he used to sit besides Mulayam. This time, Singh lost to Shyama Charan Gupta from Allahabad.
The Samajwadi Party chief has attacked his son more than once for the party’s debacle. Mulayam looked at Akhilesh sitting besides him and asked: “How did Naveen Patnaik win, Jayalalithaa or Mamata winIJ”
The query was in reference to Chief Ministers retaining majority in their states and recorded comfortable wins. “What happened in Uttar Pradesh. Why we failed to win enough seats,” he asked and Akhilesh Yadav remained silent and said nothing.
Mulayam even said that when he was Chief Minister, the party had won 36 seats in the state while in Akhilesh’s tenure the number drooped to five.
When the legislators were asked as what went wrong different people said different things. A few legislators said that SP was wiped out because of polarization of voters, some said that they were not able to take the message to good work down to the people while others complained about lack of roads, power and water responsible for the debacle.
In a pep-up talk Yadav asked workers not to feel disheartened. “Politics is the hardest work and SP legislators should give justice to the people. You must warn people about BJP and make them aware about how the BJP leaders had said lies and conspired during the entire election campaigning,” he told the legislators.
“There is no other party as strong as SP and Uttar Pradesh has moved ahead under its rule in the past two years. Ups and down are general phenomenon in politics and we should not be concerned of this defeat,” he said.