Samajwadi Party cancels merger with Qaumi Ekta Dal

Hours after UP chief minister UP chief minister Akhilesh Yadav said at a function on Saturday that he did not want ‘people like Mukhtar Ansari’ in the Samajwadi Party, the Samajwadi Party parliamentary board cancelled the merger with the Qaumi Ekta Dal (QED).

The parliamentary board meeting, chaired by SP president Mulayam Singh Yadav, however, said that Mr Balram Yadav, the senior minister who had been sacked for facilitating the merger with the Qaumi Ekta Dal should be taken back into the ministry.

The cancellation of the QED merger into the Samajwadi Party brings the curtain down on a week-long drama over the issue and also indicates that chief minister Akhilesh Yadav, for the first time, managed to prevail over his father Mulayam Singh who had earlier approved the merger.

Mr Ram Gopal Yadav, party general secretary, told reporters that the parliamentary board also decided that Mr Akhilesh Yadav would take out a Samajwadi Vikas Yatra in the coming months to spread awareness about the developmental programmes undertaken by his government.

Earlier in the day, while speaking at a conclave organised by a media house, Mr Akhilesh Yadav categorically stated that he did not want “people like Mukhtar Ansari in the party”.

This is the first time that the chief minister spoke on the issue and made his stand clear.

Mukhtar Ansari is a well-known mafia don-turned-politician who is lodged in jail since 2005 on the charges of the murder of BJP MLA Krishnanand Rai.

The chief minister also referred to reports of a rift in the Yadav clan on the issue and said, “Yeh chacha-bhatija ki baat hai, aapas me suljha lenge.”

The reference was obviously to the strain on his relationship with his uncle Shivpal Singh Yadav who had announced the QED merger in the absence of the chief minister.

Sources in the party said that after the chief minister made the statement at the function, tension was palpable in the parliamentary board meeting in which notable absentees were Azam Khan and Kironmay Nanda. The matter was left to the Yadav clan to decide. It is reported that the chief minister and Mr Ram Gopal Yadav were unrelenting on the issue and said that the QED merger would have an adverse impact on the clean image that Mr Akhilesh Yadav had cultivated over the past four-and-a-half years.

Mr Shivpal Singh Yadav reportedly maintained a neutral stand during the meeting which finally made Mr Mulayam Singh Yadav retract his steps.

Mr Mulayam Singh Yadav had earlier approved the merger with QED since he felt that this would help the party win seats in eastern UP where QED leaders wield influence.