Even as Mulayam Singh Yadav, the patriarch of the Samajwadi party is struggling hard to regain the control of the party, most of trusted colleagues whom he had groomed in last three decades have deserted him and joined the rival camp led by his son and the chief minister Akhilesh Yadav. Among his old associates only the Rajya Sabha MP Beni Prasad Verma
In his home town Sefai, in Etawah district which Mulayam Singh had nursed in last three decades, the common people and the members of his extended family are overwhelmingly supporting his son Akhilesh Yadav. They say it’s the high time for Mulayam Singh Yadav to handover the mantle of the party to his son and act as his guide to enable him to achieve new heights in public life.
Kironmoy Nanda, the vice president of the party and Rajya Sabha MP, owes his existence in politics to Mulayam Singh Yadav. Nanda, a native of West Bengal, was also the minister in the left front government. Nanda extended the most crucial help to Akhilesh Yadav in providing legal validity to the national delegate convention here on January 1. As national vice president of the party he presided over the convention in the absence of the national president. He presided over the meeting as per the constitution of the party.
Ahmed Hasan, the basic education minister was inducted in politics by Mulayam Singh Yadav. An officer from the state police service later promoted to Indian police service was the SSP of Etawah and came in close contact with Mulayam Singh Yadav nearly three decades ago. In 1993, when Mulayam Singh headed the SP-BSP coalition government Ahmed Hasan was appointed as the chairman of the UP minorities commission. For the last over two decades he is the MlC of the party and leader of the party in the upper house of the state legislature.
Raghuraj Pratap Singh alias Raja Bhaiya, the minister for stamps and registration, is also another key person to have deserted Mulayam Singh Yadav. In 2012 Akhilesh Yadav was reluctant to include him in his cabinet but had to follow the dictate of his father. A year later a DSP of state police was lynched in the assembly constituency Kunda in Prartapgarh. Raja Bhaiya had to resign and CBI probe was ordered. CBI gave a clean chit to Raja Bhaiyaa and again Mulayam Singh had to exert pressure on the chief minister to reinduct him in the cabinet.
Rajendra Chowdhary, the minister, is associate of Mulayam Singh since the Janata Party days in 1977. It was Mulayam Singh who helped him to sustain in politics for the next three decades. In 2013 Mulayam Singh had appointed him as chairman of the UP state science and technology council and later nominated him as MlC in 2013 and also inducted in the cabinet. He not only deserted Mulayam Singh but emerged as shadow of the chief minister. Ram Govind chowdhary, Balram Yadav, Brahma Shankar Tripathi, Durga Prasad Yadav, Avadesh Prasad, all ministers and all old associated of Mulayam Singh Yadav have deserted him and are now in the rival camp.
Reoti Raman Singh, Rajya Sabha MP, is also an old comrade in arms of Mulayam Singh Yadav for over four decades. He was minister in Janata Dal government headed by Mulayam Singh in 1989. Reoti Raman Singh, eight term MlA and two term lok Sabha MP from Allahabad was recently nominated to the Rajya Sabha by Mulayam Singh Yadav in June last year. He is also with the CM camp.