EC tells UP CM Akhilesh, Mulayam to back claim for cycle by Monday

New Delhi/Lucknow: With the Election Commission giving the two warring factions of the Samajwadi Party time till Monday to furnish proof that they have the numbers to claim the party symbol — cycle, party patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav rushed to the national capital to meet the EC to furnish details of his supporters, while in Lucknow, Akhilesh Yadav got 206 legislators to sign an affidavit, reposing their faith in his leadership.

Commission sources, however, denied that Mulayam Singh Yadav had met them and furnished any documents.

The EC has asked the two factions to back their claim of being the “real Samajwadi Party” with signed affidavits by MLAs, MPs and MLCs by January 9. The SP has 229 MLAs in the 403-member UP Assembly.

The two factions, led by father and son, were in talks for the past two days, but there’s been no breakthrough with both sides sticking to their demands.

In Lucknow, the Akhilesh Yadav faction has almost given up on the possibility of reconciliation and has started preparing to contest elections on its own.  

The chief minister has initiated work on his manifesto and has asked the 236 candidates announced last week —  which triggered his expulsion from the party — to start campaigning in their respective constituencies.

A team of leaders, led by UP minister Rajendra Chaudhary, have started preparing the manifesto which will focus on rural and urban youth. Its highlight, sources said, will be distribution of free smartphones.

The Akhilesh government had earlier asked people to register for smartphones and sources said that over one crore registrations have been received so far.

The chief minister has also asked his party MLAs to give feedback about local issues that could be included in the manifesto.

“The chief minister wants the manifesto to include something for every region. There could be incentives for indigenous industries like brassware in Moradabad, glassware in Ferozabad, lock units in Aligarh etc. He has asked us to provide inputs within two days to the team that is preparing the manifesto,” said a legislator.

The manifesto will also highlight the welfare work done by the Akhilesh government in the past five years and important schemes will be highlighted, including the distribution of free laptops, Lucknow metro, Lucknow-Agra Expressway, Samajwadi pension scheme, 1090 women power line, Dial UP 100 scheme, 108 ambulance service and farmer insurance scheme.

“The idea is to tell people how we have fulfilled all our promises made in the 2012 manifesto. This will give immense credibility to our new promises. We plan to put in pictures some of the major projects in the manifesto too,” said a member of the team.
 
Meanwhile, new posters have come up in several constituencies, clearly indicating that Akhilesh Yadav will have to go it alone in the polls. Candidates have been asked to put up posters that have the chief minister’s photograph along with their own photograph. These posters were put up in more than 65 constituencies on Tuesday evening itself.

Sources said that at least three marketing companies based in Delhi, Meerut and Mathura had stopped manufacturing poll memorabilia like key chain, caps, T shirts, flags, banners related to the Samajwadi Party.

Vishal Ruhela, head of Janki enterprises, admitted that orders for about 45,000 SP flags had been cancelled so far by candidates.
 
“Several candidates have put their orders on hold because of the tussle for the party symbol and name. The issue has caused huge losses to us in the election season”, he said.

Polls will be held in seven phases in Uttar Pradesh on February 11 (73 constituencies), February 15 (67), February 19 (69), February 23 (53), February 27 (52), March 3 (49) and March 8 (40).

The announcement of poll schedule has hastened efforts by the two camps to bag the “cycle” symbol.