Amid the raging feud in the Samajwadi Party’s first family, Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav suffered yet another blow on Friday with party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav announcing, that the decision on the next Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh will be taken by the party MlAs after the 2017 Assembly elections.
“The newly-elected MlAs of the party will elect the new Chief Minister after the 2017 Assembly polls. Overall it’s the job of the SP Parliamentary Board and not the media,” said Mulayam, while addressing media persons in lucknow on Friday.
“Nobody ever knew that Akhilesh would be the Chief Minister. In the 2012 Assembly polls, the party solicited votes in my name. I had served as the Chief Minister thrice and also served as the Defence Minister under two Prime Ministers. People had started calling me ‘kalam ghissu’ (clerk), so I decided to make Akhilesh the next Chief Minister and I gave him a free hand,” said the SP chief.
Mulayam’s remarks came hours after Akhilesh said that he “might be cornered, but will not lose the battle for UP.”
The announcement about the next CM candidate by Mulayam is significant since the SP’s first family is facing an existential crisis due to the power struggle between young Akhilesh and his powerful uncle and senior Minister Shivpal Yadav.
Dwelling on the subject of the intra-family dispute, Mulayam said, “There is no dispute within the family and there is no rift in the party. A mountain is being made out of a molehill. There has never been a dispute within the family for the last three generations and there never will be in future. We will move together in the chunavi (poll) rath, chunavi cycle and I will move in the chunavi helicopter.” Mulayam added, “Shivpal met the Chief Minister on Friday and they had a long meeting.”
On comments by Akhilesh about his childhood, the SP chief said, “My sister had an important role in bringing up Akhilesh and he has a lot of respect for her. I took the required care of his education. First, he was admitted to a Gwalior school and was later sent to Dhaulpur in Rajasthan.”
On Akhilesh’ comments that there was no one to name him, Shivpal said, “Can a child name himselfIJ”
Mulayam, however, said, “Dharmendra (Badaun MP) had also named himself and told me that I have enrolled myself in school as Dharmendra.”
Ruling out the possibility of an alliance with the Congress, the SP chief said, “We had suffered a lot by going for an alliance in the past, but now we have learnt a lesson and will not go for any alliance in future.”
“The SP will not have truck with any party and the Congress. The SP has grown as the number one party of India only because we moved all alone and in 2017 the party will be voted back to power with thumping majority,” Mulayam asserted.