An intense feud has been raging in the first family of Samajwadi Party as patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav has warned that he may to take the reins of Uttar Pradesh into his hands in the event that his son, Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav, fails to ensure a satisfactory performance for the ruling party in the local bodies elections due by the end of the year, a top party official said.
The elections to the zilla panchayats are likely to be held in November-December and are being seen as a major show of strength in the run up to the Assembly polls due early in 2017.
According to a senior member of the Samajwadi Party’s first family, there is a growing feeling in the leadership that Akhilesh Yadav might not be able to lead the party effectively through the crucial 2017 polls. “The next Assembly elections will be very complex and crucial in view of Bharatiya Janata Party’s massive effort to capture the state in 2017,” this person said.
He added: “Akhilesh's performance has not been bad, but to ensure a victory in such a complex election the party needs someone like Netaji [as Mulayam is referred to in the party] to lead it from the front.”
Pathetic performance
The churning in the family seems to have begun soon after the Lok Sabha elections in May last year. The party was virtually wiped out, winning just five seats out of 80 in the state. It was a family affair. Mulayam won two, while the others went to his daughter-in-law and two nephews.
Within a few weeks of the results, Akhilesh Yadav was persuaded to carry out a major ministerial reshuffle in which Minister for State for Entertainment Tax Pawan Pandey, who is considered close to the chief minister, was dismissed. Thirteen key ministers were given new portfolios. Mulayam also forced his son to demote his close confidante, state spokesperson and Prisons Minister Rajendra Chowdhary. In the re-jig, Chowdhary was given the rather insignificant department of political pensions.
The differences between the father and the son have continued to surface at regular intervals ever since. About a month ago, Mulayam actually admonished the chief minister publicly. Addressing a meeting to mark the birth anniversary of party ideologue Janeshwar Mishra, Mulayalam asked Akhilesh a question about the Centre’s flood relief to the state and caught him chatting with a partly leader. A furious Mulayam not only gave his son a piece of his mind but also went on to rebuke his party leaders, questioning their preparedness for the local bodies elections.
That the Samajwadi Party chief is taking these elections rather seriously became clear on August 31 when he issued a perform-or-perish diktat to Akhilesh’s ministers. Addressing party functionaries at a function in Mau, he said that the feedback he had received on the performance of ministers was less than satisfactory. He took the legislators to task and said that the party’s loss of credibility was the result of the underperformance of ministers and MLAs.
The BJP has already started massive preparations for the local body elections even though these polls are not contested on party lines.
Mulayam's desire to reclaim the chief minister's chair from his son has left his family divided. Party general secretary and Rajya Sabha member Ramgopal Yadav, who is a cousin of Mulayam, is said to be supportive of the move. But Mulayam’s younger brother and Uttar Pradesh cabinet minister Shivpal Yadav is opposed to it because of the deteriorating health of the Samajwadi Party patriarch, who has served as the Chief Minister of the state three times – from 1989 to 1991, from 1993 to 1995 and from 2003 to 2007.
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The elections to the zilla panchayats are likely to be held in November-December and are being seen as a major show of strength in the run up to the Assembly polls due early in 2017.
According to a senior member of the Samajwadi Party’s first family, there is a growing feeling in the leadership that Akhilesh Yadav might not be able to lead the party effectively through the crucial 2017 polls. “The next Assembly elections will be very complex and crucial in view of Bharatiya Janata Party’s massive effort to capture the state in 2017,” this person said.
He added: “Akhilesh's performance has not been bad, but to ensure a victory in such a complex election the party needs someone like Netaji [as Mulayam is referred to in the party] to lead it from the front.”
Pathetic performance
The churning in the family seems to have begun soon after the Lok Sabha elections in May last year. The party was virtually wiped out, winning just five seats out of 80 in the state. It was a family affair. Mulayam won two, while the others went to his daughter-in-law and two nephews.
Within a few weeks of the results, Akhilesh Yadav was persuaded to carry out a major ministerial reshuffle in which Minister for State for Entertainment Tax Pawan Pandey, who is considered close to the chief minister, was dismissed. Thirteen key ministers were given new portfolios. Mulayam also forced his son to demote his close confidante, state spokesperson and Prisons Minister Rajendra Chowdhary. In the re-jig, Chowdhary was given the rather insignificant department of political pensions.
The differences between the father and the son have continued to surface at regular intervals ever since. About a month ago, Mulayam actually admonished the chief minister publicly. Addressing a meeting to mark the birth anniversary of party ideologue Janeshwar Mishra, Mulayalam asked Akhilesh a question about the Centre’s flood relief to the state and caught him chatting with a partly leader. A furious Mulayam not only gave his son a piece of his mind but also went on to rebuke his party leaders, questioning their preparedness for the local bodies elections.
That the Samajwadi Party chief is taking these elections rather seriously became clear on August 31 when he issued a perform-or-perish diktat to Akhilesh’s ministers. Addressing party functionaries at a function in Mau, he said that the feedback he had received on the performance of ministers was less than satisfactory. He took the legislators to task and said that the party’s loss of credibility was the result of the underperformance of ministers and MLAs.
The BJP has already started massive preparations for the local body elections even though these polls are not contested on party lines.
Mulayam's desire to reclaim the chief minister's chair from his son has left his family divided. Party general secretary and Rajya Sabha member Ramgopal Yadav, who is a cousin of Mulayam, is said to be supportive of the move. But Mulayam’s younger brother and Uttar Pradesh cabinet minister Shivpal Yadav is opposed to it because of the deteriorating health of the Samajwadi Party patriarch, who has served as the Chief Minister of the state three times – from 1989 to 1991, from 1993 to 1995 and from 2003 to 2007.