Ram Gopal set to face backlash as Akhilesh Yadav solo show bombs

LUCKNOW: The answer to whether the sidelining of the ageing Mulayam Singh Yadav by the younger, forward-looking Akhilesh Yadav got the party electoral gains may not be easy to ascertain in the light of the juggernaut that the Narendra Modi-championed BJP proved to be.

Yet, the Samajwadi Party's worst performance since its inception in 1992 could not have been unaffected by the five-month-long, publicly-fought Yadav family feud.

In fact, many party members say that the Yadav vote bank deserted the party once the duo of Akhilesh and Ram Gopal pushed Mulayam and Shivpal into a corner.


The poll drubbing has, naturally, put the focus, perhaps not so much on Akhilesh, but certainly, on party general secretary Ram Gopal, and dire mutterings about a “conspiracy“ are being heard in regard to how the latter guided the former in usurping power from Mulayam.

Shivpal disparagingly said Ram Gopal is not the Chanakya he is being made out to be -only a collaborator of Amit Shah, helping the BJP president to implement the agenda to ruin the political career of both Akhilesh and Samajwadi Party. Party sources privately allege that Ram Gopal danced to Shah's tune to save himself from being included in the CBI probe into the Rs 954-crore scam involving Yadav Singh, former engineer-in-chief of Noida.

Whether it was the party's decision to forge a tie-up with a “weak“ Congress, dislodging Mulayam from the post of party president or taking control of the ticket distribution, Akhilesh assiduously followed Ram Gopal.

Insiders say that during the family battle, Ram Gopal painted Mulayam as a “liability“ and that “history would not spare him if he did not hand over the party reins to Akhilesh“. In the party reins to Akhilesh“. In the light of what this finally achieved, the assumption is ironical.

Even before the family feud surfaced in October last year, Ram Gopal had secretly begun a signature campaign among party delegates and officer bearers to convene an emergency session to dislodge the party chief.

Amazingly for an adroit practitioner of politics, Mulayam was unaware of his cousin's machinations.

On November 1, Akhilesh revolted. He ousted his father as party chief, sacked Shivpal from the post of state president and showed the door to Amar Singh. The 43-year-old might now sit back and wonder to what purpose.