With fingers crossed, both the faction of the Samajwadi Party are waiting for the ‘verdict of the Election Commission on the party name and election symbol to be declared on Monday.
leaders of both the factions led by Mulayam Singh Yadav and his son Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav had a quite day on Sunday. Both met the party leaders and their supporters and discussed the alternative options in case the party’s election symbol is freezed by the EC.
SP is celebrating the silver jubilee year as the party was established in October 1992. This is also the golden jubilee year of Mulayam Singh Yadav, completing 50 years in public life as he was elected to the UP Assembly for the first time in 1967 from Jaswant Nagar assembly constituency in Etawah district.
Both the factions of the party have huge stake in the election symbol cycle of the party. Several lakh cycles were distributed by the State labour department during the last five year tenure of the Akhilesh Yadav Government and over 3,000 km of cycle track were constructed across the State during the same period.
Akhilesh during his entire regime had promoted bicycle as a brand of the State and himself cycled from time to time to promote this eco-friendly transport system and his party’s election symbol.
The patriarch of the SP Mulayam Singh Yadav on Sunday met Shivpal Yadav and some other leaders at his residence to chalk out strategy for the UP polls, Akhilesh on the other hand too was closet with his close confidants at his official residence on the eve of the EC’s verdict. Mulayam while talking to some of the leaders at his residence asked them to not to be perturbed by the ECs verdict and they should go to their respective constituencies and work for the party,
Sources said that Mulayam also expressed his displeasure over the Akhilesh factions move to hire the Rajya Sabha MP of the Congress Kapil Sibal to plead its case against him before the election commission.
Mulayam Singh is reported to have told a senior leader that the SP had supported Kapil Sibbal during the Rajya Sabha elections held in June last year and the same person was fighting the SP. Mulayam also said he was trying to save the party but Akhilesh seems to have little interest in the future of the party.
The SP patriarch is also reported to have expressed his reservations over the move of the Akhilesh camp to enter into a pre poll alliance with the Congress. The party sources said Mulayam Singh said that he was against pre poll alliance with any comfortable and confident of victory of his candidates and rather than going for an alliance.
Mulayam Singh also assured the leaders that every eligible person will be considered for the party ticket in this assembly polls and directed Shivpal Yadav, who was also there to complete the candidates list by Sunday evening. Mulayam camp had already announced 397 candidates with around 170 candidates common with the Akhilesh group. Akilesh has also announced the list of 237 candidates so far.
On the other hand, lok Dal President Sunil Singh, has offered Mulayam to take over his party, which was formed by former Prime Minister late Choudhury Charan Singh. The election symbol of lok Dal is farmer ploughing the field. This option is under consideration of Mulayam faction if the cycle symbol is freezed by the EC. Similarly, the Akhilesh faction is also considering to go for motorcycle symbol.
Though there are usual rants of the bravado from both the Mulayam and Akhilesh camps, the contours of the real politic are gradually sinking in particularly on those who are in the race of contesting the elections and whose name figure in both the list announced by Mulayam Singh and CM Akhilesh Yadav. The Election commission will issue the notification for the first phase of the Assembly elections in UP on January 17 where 73 Assembly seats in Western UP will go to polls on February 4.