Fissures within SP: Mulayam to meet Election Commission today

January 02, 2017 08:53

Uttar Pradesh chief minister Akhilesh Yadav staged a coup on Sunday, dislodging his father Mulayam Singh Yadav as Samajwadi Party president and installing himself as the boss at an "emergency convention" of the party.

While this caps three months of acrimonious manoeuvres and counter-manoeuvres that the two sides claimed would not lead to a split, Sunday's developments have torn the party asunder, with two separate entities, SP (Mulayam) and SP (Akhilesh) likely to contest the assembly polls.

Akhilesh took the precaution of not appearing to be ungrateful to his father by making Mulayam the 'margdarshak' or mentor, but this would hardly mask the fact that party founded by the 77-year-old former UP CM has gone out of his control. The special convention, called by Mulayam's cousin Ram Gopal, also moved two other proposals: sack MP Amar Singh from primary membership of the party and remove Shivpal, Mulayam's younger brother, as state president.

The Election Commission is likely to freeze the 'bicycle' symbol as it doesn't have enough time to verify the claim of either of the two factions as to which one is real. The freezing of the symbol would further erode any leverage Mulayam has left with the MLAs, and level the playing field between him and his son.

Sources said Mulayam would reach New Delhi on Monday along with his brother Shivpal for a meeting with the Election Commission. 'Sacked' party MP Amar Singh too is back from London and sources suggested there could possibly be a meeting between the three in the national capital.

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