Samajwadi Party supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav (L) and Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav (2nd R) during 70th Independence Day celebrations at the party office in Lucknow. (Photo: PTI)
Samajwadi Party supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav (L) and Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav (2nd R) during 70th Independence Day celebrations at the party office in Lucknow. (Photo: PTI)
The Yadav family feud was out in the open on Monday, with Samajwadi Party supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav openly siding with his brother and slamming his son, chief minister Akhilesh Yadav.
Defending his younger brother Shivpal Singh Yadav, who has threatened to resign, and directly attacking his son, Mr Mulayam Singh Yadav, while addressing party workers on Independence Day at party headquarters, said, “He (Shivpal) is the only one who listens to me and even he wants to resign. Why are they insulting him If I stand up, this government will feel the heat... The present government in Uttar Pradesh does not want to work. Akhilesh has ruined the entire Samajwadi Party. Ministers of Akhilesh government are burden for party. There are some in the Cabinet who are deeply involved in corrupt practices.”
Mr Shivpal Singh Yadav, a senior Uttar Pradesh minister, had on Sunday threatened to resign in protest against non-compliance of orders by officers and the deteriorating law and order situation in the state. “If this continues, I may even resign and sit in the Opposition. Netaji (Mulayam Singh) has built up this party through sheer hard work but there are some leaders within the party who are damaging it. Even officers and engineers have stopped responding to my directives”, he had declared to a stunned audience at a school function in Mainpuri, and repeated his threat on Monday.
“If Shivpal moves out of the government, the party will be in deep trouble. I have stopped him from resigning after much persuasion. He is one minister who works sincerely while other ministers are a liability on the government and the party”, Mr Mulayam Singh Yadav said, and added that though he had spread the Samajwadi network to four states, the party was now confined to Uttar Pradesh.
First Shivpal Yadav’s threat to resign had a “devastating” impact on party workers, and now Mr Mulayam Singh Yadav’s statement has thrown the party into disarray in Uttar Pradesh, a politically critical state that’s headed for polls soon.
Mr Shivpal Singh Yadav, who was appointed state in-charge of the party in the crucial election year, has been upset at the manner in which his decisions are being overturned under pressure from other “family members”. First, grand alliance in Bihar was aborted, then the alliance with Rashtriya Lok Dal was called off and finally, the merger with the Qaumi Ekta Dal was cancelled. “All these decisions were taken after the approval of the party president Mulayam Singh Yadav, but it was Shivpal who was made the scapegoat of all these decisions. He has been humiliated enough and if he takes any drastic step, it will spell doom for the party”, said a state level office bearer on Monday.
“If a secret ballot is held today, more than 80 per cent of the legislators will vote for Shivpal Yadav because he works for all, is easily accessible and never turns anyone away. The situation is obviously getting out of hand or else he would have never made such a statement. He is not one to throw tantrums without any reason. We only hope that Mr Mulayam Singh Yadav takes up the issue seriously or else the situation will spin out of control”, said a senior SP MLA.
