Even as the strife in the first family of the Samajwadi party far from over the party president Akhilesh Yadav has convened the meeting of the youth organisations of the party for the review of the worst ever poll debacle of the party in recent state assembly elections. The meeting will be held here on April 8.
Samawadi Party president ignoring the resentment among the old guards in the party wants to fashion the party in his own way to meet the coming challenges and wants to put its house in order as early as possible ahead of the election of the urban local bodies and the by election to the two lok Sabha seats.
Recent decision by the party president, a Samajwadi Party leader said gives a clear indication that Akhilesh Yadav is firmly in saddle and has full control over the both the wings of the party –the organisation and legislature.. The SP leader said the spate of decisions of Akhilesh Yadav after the assembly elections speaks of his intentions.
“The recent meeting of the national executive endorsed the proposal for amending the party constitution for extending the tenure of the party’s national president from three years to five years and the number of general secretary and secretary posts in the party was increased from six to 10 and the post of national vice-president was increased from one to three’’, said the SP leader adding `` it was done to pack the party organisation posts with the loyalist of Akhilesh Yadav.
Moreover Samajwadi party sources said Akhilesh Yadav ignored the old guards like Azam Khan and Shivpal Yadav and appointed his loyalist Ram Govind Chowdhary as the leader of opposition in the state assembly’’. Another important decision was taken at that meeting – a new post of chief general secretary was created for Akhilesh Yadav loyalist Ramgopal Yadav. Both Mulayam Singh and his brother Shivpal Yadav were not present in the meeting of the national executive and the fate of the party patriarch Mulayam Singh remains uncertain in the party.
On the meeting of the youth organisations, youth leader member of the core team of Akhilesh said “unlike Rahul Gandhi, SP president cannot afford string of failures, so to recover the lost ground party has to perform in urban local body elections and also register its presence during the by elections of the two lok Sabha seats so he has to activate the war machine of the party—the youth organisations.
The Youth organisations of the party were given the crucial responsibility of booth management during the recently concluded assembly elections. The inputs so far gathered by Akhilesh Yadav after the meeting all the party candidates winners and losers revealed that most of the youth leaders were more active in luck now in raising slogans rather working at the ground zero to campaign for the party candidates and managing the booths on the polling day.
The rival camp of the Samajwadi party however remains dejected and disillusioned with the leadership of akhilesh Yadav. Deepak Mishra, former party spokesman and a close associate of Shivpal Yadav said ``the situation in the Samajwadi Party, where veteran leaders were being sidelined, was not conducive to taking on the BJP in the state and Akhilesh should rise above small considerations and take every one along. He added ``Akhilesh can fight the tough battle that lies ahead only if there is unity in the party otherwise it will be difficult’’.
The by election to lok Sabha seats is likely to be caused by the resignation of the Chief minister Yogi Adityanath from the Gorakhpur lok Sabha seat and deputy chief minister Keshav Prasad Maurya from the Phulpur lok Sabha seat. Both have to seek the membership of the either of the house of the bicameral UP legislature within next six months from the date of assuming office in UP.