This refers to the editorial, “Samajwad's Big Boss” (January 18). With the Election Commission giving Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav the licence to use the Samajwadi Party's official electoral symbol ‘cycle’, the tussle over the ownership of the party as well as speculations thereabout have been put to rest. Though in the heat of the moment, Samajwadi Party patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav reportedly said something against his son, but with the latter approaching the former out of his filial duty, to take his blessings, all differences have been ironed out.
As regards the division of the party's monolithic vote-bank of Muslims, the Muslim community in the State has an umbilical connect with the party's founder and co-founder Mulayam Singh Yadav and Azam Khan respectively. Hence, the chances of division of votes are very thin, even as the Samajwadi Party-Congress alliance will simply strengthen it to take on the BJP as well as the Bahujan Samaj Party.