The Samajwadi Party may have lost ground in the bitter battle that has played out in Uttar Pradesh in the past two months but, ironically, it is chief minister Akhilesh Yadav who has gained tremendous
The Samajwadi Party may have lost ground in the bitter battle that has played out in Uttar Pradesh in the past two months but, ironically, it is chief minister Akhilesh Yadav who has gained tremendously in terms of support and popularity.
It is the young chief minister’s growing support from the youth that has left the entire senior leadership almost stunned and has, reportedly, forced SP president Mulayam Singh Yadav to give up the idea of a change of leadership in the government.
The two-day drama at the Samajwadi Party office during which thousands of youths rooted for Akhilesh and hooted out the senior leaders showed, for the first time, that Akhilesh has managed to firmly establish himself as a youth icon in state politics.
The Samajwadi Party had never witnessed the kind of scenes that it saw on Monday when Mr Mulayam Singh Yadav and Mr Shivpal Yadav addressed party leaders.
There was constant slogan shouting in favour of Akhilesh and Mr Mulayam Singh Yadav, was forced to ask the crowds to keep quiet but they did not heed his orders. State president Shivpal Yadav was not only interrupted several times during his speech in which he criticized the chief minister but also faced uneasy questions from the audience. When he said he had widely toured the state, a youth leader Atul Pradhan shouted, “You went around in a helicopter” which forced Shivpal to ask “Helicopter tumhare baap ka tha kya ” (Did the helicopter belong to your father).
The scores of young men who remained outside the party headquarters for two consecutive days, shouting slogans like ‘Jai Akhilesh, Sirf Akhilesh’ and demanding that he should be named the chief ministerial candidate, may not subscribe to the party ideology and may not even be familiar with the life and times of Dr Lohia, but they definitely reflect the mood of the youth.
Akhilesh has proved that he has the energy of the youth behind him even if they are bereft of party ideology.
The political crisis in the Samajwadi Party began with Akhilesh being replaced as the state party chief with his uncle Shivpal Yadav. However, back then also Akhilesh survived a major political crisis, as party supremo decided against replacing him as the chief minister.
