I’m still party chief, says Mulayam Singh Yadav

New Delhi: Even as the Election Commission (EC) reserved its order on the Samajwadi Party’s symbol “bicycle”, patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav said he was in no mood to cede control of the party. On January 1, UP chief minister Akhilesh Yadav had declared himself the SP’s national president, and assigned margdarshak’s role to his father.  

“I am anyway the margdarshak of the party,” the septuagenarian said on Friday, while maintaining that he was still the SP’s chief. The EC which heard the two warring factions is expected to announce its order by January 16, a day before nominations for the Assembly elections start in UP.

During the six-hour hearing, both factions staked their claim to the symbol, saying they were the real Samajwadi Party. Congress leader and lawyer Kapil Sibal represented Akhilesh Yadav’s faction. Former solicitor general of India Mohan Parasaran led the team representing Mulayam Singh Yadav’s side.

“Both sides said that there was no split in the party,” Gauri Neo Rampal, one of the lawyers representing Mulayam Singh Yadav, said.

From the CM’s camp, SP Rajya Sabha MPs Ram Gopal Yadav and Naresh Agrawal were present at the hearing, while Mulayam Singh Yadav along with his brother Shivpal Yadav pleaded their case. Conspicuous by his absence was Amar Singh, who has emerged as the “main villain” for Akhilesh Yadav’s camp.

Sources said that the CM’s camp argued that as per the Symbol Order of 1968 and provisions, including Section 29A of the Representation of the People Act , the symbol should be given to him since the numbers are stacked in his favour.

The patriarch’s side said that since “there is no vertical split in the party”, the EC “lacked the power to freeze the symbol and ask the individual outfits to fight on fresh symbols”. It maintained that Mulayam Singh Yadav remained the party’s national president.

Akhilesh Yadav’s camp used the term “splinter group” for his father’s faction, and said that even Mulayam Singh Yadav’s close aide Amar Singh has “admitted that Akhilesh’s was the main SP”.

Both sides had submitted documents to further their claim, and the EC had asked them to provide signed affidavits of legislators and office bearers to claim control over the party’s name and symbol.

The side which has the support of majority (50 per cent plus 1) MPs, MLAs, MLCs and delegates will gain an upper hand in the fight to control the party founded by Mulayam Singh Yadav 25 years ago. The election for phase one in UP is on February 11.