Adityanath slams Akhilesh over dynastic politics remark

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath criticised Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav on Monday over his recent remark that “dynastic politics” had helped keep the SP united. The chief minister said the SP believed that only its “family syndicate” should be respected. Addressing a gathering, Adityanath said Akhilesh’s remarks showed that the party considered other MPs worthless and believed that only members of one family could become its MPs.

“Congress believes that only Congress should be honoured, while the Samajwadi Party (SP) believes that only its ‘family syndicate’ should be respected,” he said.

Adityanath said this ‘family syndicate’ is such that any goon in your town, area, district or state finds himself ideologically close to the SP. “Their work is to occupy the land of the poor, extort money from traders and compromise the safety of daughters,” he alleged.

Yadav, at a press conference in Lucknow on Saturday, said the SP does not break alliances and that its fight is against the BJP. Asked about defections by MPs from various parties, he referred to the presence of several members of his family among SP MPs and said, “Have you ever wondered why the entire party did not split? Because there are five MPs from the same family. We also have several Muslim MPs, and some staunch socialists, so our numbers would not decrease.” 

“Sometimes dynastic politics has its benefits,” Yadav, leader of the third-largest party in the Lok Sabha, had said in a lighter vein. Taking a dig at the remark, Adityanath on Monday said, “They believe that the remaining MPs are worthless and that only members of one family can be MPs.”

The SP currently has 37 Lok Sabha MPs from Uttar Pradesh, while the BJP has 33. Congress has six, RLD has two, Apna Dal and Azad Samaj Party one each of all 80 UP seats.

In the Yadav clan, the Lok Sabha MPs are Akhilesh Yadav (Kannauj), Dimple Yadav (Mainpuri), Dharmendra Yadav (Azamgarh), Akshaya Yadav (Firozabad) and Aditya Yadav (Budaun).

The chief minister’s remarks came in Raebareli, a traditional Congress stronghold and the Lok Sabha constituency of Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi, even as the SP has three MLAs in the district.

In recent years, several major political parties have faced splits or major internal breaks, including the Shiv Sena, Nationalist Congress Party, Janata Dal (United), Aam Aadmi Party and Trinamool Congress, with rival factions emerging or breaking away from the original parties.