After the war within the Samajwadi Party, an uneasy truce

War of succession is common in history. It might have been typical of feudal families to adhere to a line of succession, any deviation from which could even lead to bloodbaths. While that era is long gone by, the old order often manifests itself in 21st century democratic societies, ruled by family-run political parties.

It was, therefore, no surprise to find the ruling Yadav clan at war with itself in Uttar Pradesh. What made it significant was that this politically crucial state is heading for polls in early 2017.

The seeds of discontent were sown in March 2012, when Samajwadi Party supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav chose to anoint his son Akhilesh Yadav instead of his aspiring younger brother Shivpal Yadav as chief minister. Despite being the party's face in the polls that gave the SP an unprecedented mandate, Akhilesh was still a political novice in comparison to his uncle Shivpal, to whom Mulayam could have easily given the crown. Much to Shivpal’s chagrin, the father chose the son, perhaps to ensure a clearly laid-out line of succession.

Shivpal did try to obliquely register his dissent by propagating that he wanted Netaji (Mulayam) to yet again don the mantle of CM. But ill-health and the onset of a degenerative ailment prompted the shrewd Netaji not to be guided by anything other than charting a smooth course of succession — and to pass the reins of power to his son during his lifetime. As a quid pro quo, Shivpal was allowed to handpick multiple (and key) portfolios, over which he enjoyed absolute control, like a private fiefdom.

Akhilesh's other chacha Ram Gopal Yadav (Mulayam's first cousin), who was better known as the party's backroom boy and strategist, had always pushed for the nephew. So Akhilesh felt indebted to him and treated him as friend, philosopher and guide. In the bargain, Ram Gopal served his own politics of ensuring one-upmanship over Shivpal. The divide was complete — Shivpal on one side and Akhilesh backed by Ram Gopal on the other.

Five-and-a-half Chief Ministers
While Shivpal ruled the roost in multiple ministries under him, his say in other affairs of governance was minimised during the past four and a half years. Every time Shivpal had a grouse against his nephew, he would shoot off his elder brother's shoulders. Mulayam, who continued to do a lot of backseat driving for Akhilesh, would do the balancing act between his son and brother. But more often than not, the son was at the receiving end as Mulayam would not hesitate to ridicule him in public.

Since such reprimand by the father was aimed at placating the overbearing Shivpal, Akhilesh had no option but to take the humiliation silently. The dominance of father, uncles and some others led critics to term Akhilesh as the "half" among "five– and-a-half chief ministers".

Akhilesh displayed the first signs of assertion barely two months back when he shot down Shivpal’s plan for the merger of mafia don-turned-politician Mukhtar Ansari's Quami Ekta Dal (QED) with the Samajwadi Party. Having had an earlier showdown with his chacha when he could not stop the re-entry of Amar Singh into the party, Akhilesh made sure that he did not have to suffer another humiliation. So he took a strong line on the plea that such a merger would tarnish the party’s image.

With Amar Singh in tow, Shivpal hit back shortly by getting his Man Friday Deepak Singhal in the chief secretary's seat, despite stiff opposition from Akhilesh who disapproved of the 1982 batch IAS officer because of his allegedly shady past. It took Akhilesh two months to muster the courage to sack Singhal, who was the source of repeated embarrassment. A few hours earlier, he had sacked mining minister Gayatri Prasad Prajapati and panchayati raj minister Kishore Singh, both of whom faced serious charges of corruption. What gave Akhilesh the unusual strength to take the drastic step against Prajapati, known for his close proximity to Mulayam, was a high court order that turned down the government’s plea for the withdrawal of a CBI probe against Prajapati.

The Shivpal-Amar Singh duo made it appear to Mulayam that Akhilesh had turned insolent and that the moves were acts of defiance against him. A provoked Mulayam instantly divested Akhilesh of the position of state chief of the Samajwadi Party and replaced him with Shivpal, who had about four months earlier been made "in-charge" of the state unit. Akhilesh retaliated by stripping Shivpal of the key portfolios of public works, revenue and irrigation — considered goldmine ministries. Instead, Shivpal was given the less significant social welfare ministry.

That marked the end of the longdrawn "cold war", which now took the shape of an open battle. It seemed Akhilesh had decided to have it out with his uncle, to whom he wanted to explicitly convey that enough was enough. Ram Gopal stood by Akhilesh while Amar Singh played his machinations. Having used his influence over Shivpal not only to regain entry into the Samajwadi Party (after being thrown out seven years ago) but also a Rajya Sabha berth despite stiff opposition from Akhilesh and Ram Gopal, Amar Singh is understood to have been working towards having Shivpal usurp the CM's chair.

Once Akhilesh realised that things were heading in that direction (which he later hinted at in a television interview), he trained his guns on Shivpal and made no bones about declaring war against agent provocateur Amar Singh, whom he referred to as the "outsider".

SP patriarch Mulayam, who had never expected his docile son to rise to the occasion, finally stepped in to end the turmoil that was eventually going to take a toll on the party's prospects in the forthcoming poll. He first asked Akhilesh and Shivpal to sit across the table and sort it out amicably. But the meeting only stoked more fireworks.

Around midnight, Mulayam quietly asked Shivpal to resign and no sooner did the latter put in his papers than the father again called the son, blaming him for bringing things to a head and taking the party to the verge of a split. By next morning the tide had turned and Akhilesh, who had shown his spine until 12 hours back, was ready to concede everything to chacha and father.

What began with an assurance to take back the two sacked ministers ended with the restoration of all of Shivpal's lucrative portfolios. The young chief minister also failed to get what he had been deprived of — the position of the state SP chief — a loss over which he expressed his anguish in an interview. All that he has been assured of by the father is that the "outsider" (read Amar Singh) would not be allowed to meddle in the affairs of the family or government. A saving grace for Akhilesh was that Singhal’s return was not sought.

Even as the family has called it a day, Akhilesh must be wondering whether all the upheaval, which took his image to its peak only to send it plummeting barely 96 hours later, was worth it.

By Sharat Pradhan

(The writer is a Lucknowbased political analyst)