In yet another twist in the Samajwadi Party’s internecine war on Monday, party patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav said that Akhilesh Yadav would be the chief ministerial face of the party in the forthcoming Assembly election in Uttar Pradesh. The late night announcement came hours after Mulayam met officials of the Election Commission of India in New Delhi and claimed his right over the SP’s election symbol.
“I want to make it clear that Akhilesh Yadav would be the next Chief Minister of the State,” he told a private news channel in lucknow immediately after his hour-long meeting with Shivpal Singh Yadav and tainted Minister Gayatri Prajapati.
Declaring the chief ministerial candidate was one of the major issues fuelling the feud between the father and the son. Mulayam had earlier refused to project Akhilesh as the CM face and claimed that the legislature Party would elect a new CM. He had even said that he himself was elected the CM by the legislature Party.
The ‘bite’ to the private channel seems to be well thought out as Mulayam read from a piece of paper while speaking to the reporter.
“There are three points. One, there would be no division of the Samajwadi Party; two, I will start the election campaign shortly and address meetings at divisional headquarters and third Akhilesh would be the CM candidate of the party,” he said.
Probably, this is the last attempt Mulayam Singh has made to salvage the party which he built brick by brick over 25 years. In Delhi he had told reporters that he had no differences with his son.
However, the Akhilesh camp is a bit circumspect about his statement. “Mulayam Singh Yadav is our leader but he has not spoken about candidates. let’s see what happens. But yes, this is a positive step in the right direction,” Naved Siddiqui a party spokesman said.
Earlier, in Delhi, the Akhilesh camp urged the ECI to take a final call on the SP’s election symbol before the nomination process for UP polls begins on January 17 even as the rival faction led by Mulayam told the poll panel that the January 1 convention called by Akhilesh’s camp was “unconstitutional” and the party’s electoral symbol of ‘cycle’ should remain with his camp.
If the ECI is not convinced by the claims made by either side by January 17, then the party’s symbol might be frozen and two different symbols would be allotted to both factions.
Accompanied by his loyalists Amar Singh and Shivpal Singh Yadav, Mulayam visited Nirvachan Sadan and told ECI officials that he remained the president of the SP. “There was a resolution appointing Akhilesh as party president and another one appointing me as its mentor, there was no resolution removing me from the party chief’s post,” he said.
From Akhilesh’s camp, Ram Gopal Yadav, Naresh Agarwal and Kiranmoy Nanda visited the EC’s office to urge it to “take a quick decision” on the symbol dispute.
When asked about the ongoing tussle within the family and party, Mulayam said, “There is no rift between me and my son Akhilesh Yadav.” Without blaming Ram Gopal Yadav directly for the feud he added, “My son is being provoked by one person. We are sure that issues will be resolved.”
To another question, he said, “We have differences over the election symbol which will be resolved by the EC.”
“The poll panel is studying the constitutional and legal position on the claims of the factions led by Akhilesh and his father Mulayam. The chances are that the process will not be completed before January 17, when the nominations for the first phase of the staggered Assembly elections begin. With the huge volumes of evidence given by the Akhilesh camp, the process has become protracted and it will take over a month to go through each and every aspect,” said the sources.
The EC will identify the apex committee(s) in the organisation and find out how many office-bearers, members support the rival claimants.
“The commission will also examine the signatures, affidavits and counter-affidavits submitted by both camps before reaching any conclusion on the party symbol,” the sources said, adding that in case the poll panel is unable to verify the legislative majority of either group, it has the option of freezing the symbol and the name and asking both factions to pick a new name and symbol in the interim.