Samajwadi Party family feud: Team Akhilesh prepares big ‘proof’ for Election Commission

NEW DELHI: Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav told his supporters on Thursday that he wants to be the national president of the party for only three months after which it will be his father Mulayam Singh Yadav’s choice as to who will lead the party. Akhilesh said it was critical that he was at the helm during the duration of the election. This happened even as his team got notarized affidavits of support of nearly 300 MLAs and MLCs. These will be submitted to the Election Commission.

Akhilesh told his party supporters at the four-hour long meeting that a victory in the election will be his gift to his father. “Netaji ke charano main vo jeet daal denge,” the UP CM said, an MLA present at the meet told ET quoting the CM. Akhilesh reiterated that his father was being badly advised. The affidavits signed state the concerned MLA pledges his support to Akhilesh and that the SP meet of January 1 and the decision to choose Akhilesh as party chief had their support.

SP cadre said the CM told them several times that he was trying hard to talk to his father and will continue doing so. “He told us that he had almost convinced Netaji in the morning to not go to Delhi and that he will try again, one more time, to settle the matters with him on Friday before his team leaves for Delhi,” an SP MLC told ET.


Akhilesh’s team is quite confident that given the number of signed affidavits they have it will not be difficult for them to wrest the symbol and party. “Netaji and Shivpal’s side have little support. They are resting their case on their clause that the meeting was invalid. It now depends on how the officials at Election Commission interpret it.”

“Jis ore jawani chalti hai, us ore zamana chalta hai,” a senior SP leader told ET quoting a famous slogan from the movement of Jay Prakash Narayan. An SP MLA said though Akhilesh has an overwhelming support among cadre now, in case a split occurs, the party stands to lose. “In a situation like this, candidates from the factions will put pictures of both Netaji and Akhilesh on their posters. This will only lead to more confusion among voters.”

Senior party leader Azam Khan tried to broker peace between the two factions. Khan is believed to have told Shivpal Yadav that when he himself wants his son Aditya to inherit his political legacy, it is unfair of him to expect Mulayam not to do the same for his son. A leader close to Akhilesh strongly denied reports of the CM asking for his uncle Shivpal to be shifted to the Rajya Sabha. He has, however, insisted on the expulsion of Amar Singh from the party, a condition that, according to sources, has not been accepted by Mulayam.

SP leaders close to Akhilesh said Ram Gopal Yadav had presented a dossier full of papers while Mulayam’s team had presented a thin file. “EC has already made notings on the file regarding the symbol. We had given time to Akhilesh to respond. Akhilesh needs to act fast to prevent the symbol from being frozen,” an SP leader said.

However, a top EC official told ET that the father-son war has become a legal issue now and will be sorted out only after both factions are heard. He added since 1969 four cases similar to the SP war have been solved by the Commission. “Akhilesh’s team had submitted signatures, not affidavits.

Now they have to make those submissions. Mulayam’s faction too will have to do it if needed. Studying all that and then getting the factions to study each other’s submissions will take time. Signatures should be from members of the legislative wing of the party and also of delegates.”

The official added no date has been fixed for the matter to be heard as of now and it will depend on how fast both the warring factions approach the EC with their respective final submissions. “The institution is facing a lot of workload because of elections in five states,” he added, suggesting the issue can take a while to be solved.

After the ‘symbol’ issue is sorted out, Akhilesh is expected to launch a mega campaign. The alliance with Congress is almost a done deal, say top Congress leaders, adding it will be firmed up after their party vice-president Rahul Gandhi comes back from China.