The Samajwadi Party has exploded, but the explosion – apart from pushing the ruling party in a serious crisis – has also set the stage for new alignments, thus redrawing the battle lines in the politically crucial Uttar Pradesh.
The decision of Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav to step out of the shadow of his father, party president Mulayam Singh Yadav, after a day-long public spectacle outside his residence at Lucknow on Thursday, and the release of a parallel list of 235 candidates thereafter are likely to have great bearing on the future of the state’s politics.
Significantly, Akhilesh Yadav has not fielded candidates in a large number of seats considered preferential by the Congress, including all those seats that it currently holds.
The feud in the state’s first family reached a flash point after Mulayam Singh Yadav released a list of 325 candidates, leaving out several of the Uttar Pradesh chief minister’s key aides, on Wednesday. The list had many of the candidates that Akhilesh Yadav had fiercely opposed but were backed by his uncle Shivpal Yadav.
While releasing this list of 325 candidates, Mulayam Singh Yadav also refused to name Akhilesh Yadav as the party’s chief ministerial nominee ahead of the upcoming Assembly elections in the state.
Akhilesh Yadav was not in Lucknow on Wednesday when his father announced the names of 325 candidates.
Open defiance
On Thursday, Akhilesh Yadav went to meet his father after holding the first round of meeting with his supporters. Mulayam Singh Yadav reportedly remained adamant and the son came back to resume the meeting with his supporters, which lasted till the list of candidates was finalised, said insiders in the chief minister’s close circle of supporters.
“Akhilesh also told his supporters to be ready to contest on new party symbol,” said a party leader close to the chief minister.
Clearly, the public feud in the family has brought the party on the brink of a vertical split. A leader of the Akhilesh Yadav camp, spelt out the strategy. “Forming a new party would be our last resort,” he said. “Since most of the MPs, MLAs and MLCs are with the chief minister, we would first try to make him the national president of the party.”
Akhilesh Yadav’s list of 235 candidates has a total of 171 sitting MLAs of the party. In the state Assembly of 403 members, the Samajwadi Party has the strength of 229.
With the release of a parallel list of candidates, the chief minister has taken the first concrete step to enter into the fray for the upcoming Assembly elections independent of his uncle and, more importantly, his father. Electorally, the move is likely to work in favour of Akhilesh Yadav. For, unlike his party which is facing considerable anti-incumbency as the ruling party often does, his personal image has remained untainted.
In fact, the long drawn family feud has lifted Akhilesh above the ragged state of his party and sharpened the perception that he is a well-meaning person who wants to work for the development of the state but is not being allowed to function independently by his father and his uncle. It is this factor that has led many in the party to believe that a separation from his father and uncle would help him buck anti-incumbency in the state.