Father, Son And Holy Bike

The drama is over and the ­curtain has fallen. The speculated split in the Samajwadi Party (SP) did not happen and the party retained its electoral symbol바카라�the bicycle. 바카라�Netaji바카라� Mulayam Singh Yadav has put 바카라�Tipu바카라� ahead of his brothers and put his stamp of approval on son Akhilesh Yadav as the undisputed leader of the party. Staying flexible without losing the scripted plot, Mulayam all­owed ­Akhilesh to come up on his own with the support of his legislators바카라�in ­effect, patronising his son without ­appearing to be backing him. He did not submit individual affidavits by legislators to the Election Commission (EC) to counter his son바카라�s claim even though he had a galaxy of eminent lawyers to argue his case. The indications were clear. He allowed son-CM-and-now-party-­president Akhilesh to have a walkover.

Rajya Sabha MP and SP leader Ram Gopal Yadav has now submitted a caveat in the Supreme Court on the symbol issue, preempting Mulayam바카라�s younger brother and trusted counsel Shivpal Yadav and others from moving court. To Akhilesh, both 바카라�wheeler-dealer바카라� and 바카라�uncle바카라� Amar Singh and 바카라�chacha바카라� Shivpal are irritants.

Sources say Akhilesh seemed confident on the symbol issue. He invited some sel­ected journalists to his official residence on January 17, a day after the EC verdict, but they were not allowed to bring in cameras or mobile phones. They were told that when Akhilesh went to meet Mulayam at night, after the EC verdict, 바카라�Netaji was happy바카라� and 바카라�we cannot be separated바카라�. Father and son managed to hog the limelight, eclipsing developments in the other political parties in the fray.

Amar Singh and Shivpal have been sidelined completely. Akhilesh wanted a free hand in party affairs before elections, and definitely minus Amar Singh and Shivpal. As a result, Shivpal바카라�s name didn바카라�t appear on Mulayam바카라�s shortlist of candidates and, just one day before the EC verdict, Amar Singh also packed himself off to London for medical treatment. That very day, Naresh Uttam, who would replace Shivpal as state party president, apparently called on Mulayam. No one knows what they discussed, but Naresh came out of the house only after nearly two hours. When he was asked about the visit, Naresh ­reportedly told some people that he had gone to seek 바카라�Netaji바카라�s blessings바카라�.

In the afternoon of January 16, while the commissioners in the EC in Delhi were busy drafting the pronouncement, Mulayam reached the party office in Lucknow. But he didn바카라�t enter the office and went instead to first call on Naresh. While addressing party workers, he made Naresh sit to his left and an old man on his right. Shivpal sat behind Mulayam. He told party workers that Akhilesh neither responds to his calls nor hears his point of view and Muslims have become annoyed with the party. Mulayam바카라�s statement is seen by many as an attempt to balance many factors바카라�consolidate the upper-caste and Yadav votes for Akhilesh while also gaining the sympathy of Muslim voters. It is also seen as a diversionary tactics to make Akhilesh appear as a neutral leader 바카라�without the Muslim baggage바카라�.

Interestingly, after Mulayam left the party office and before the EC verdict came, Naresh and his supporters apparently fixed Akhilesh바카라�s nameplate as party president바카라�golden-framed with a black background바카라�below Mulayam바카라�s golden-framed red-and-green name plate. The letters on Akhilesh바카라�s nameplate were in bigger size.

바카라�Mulayam seems to have surrendered unconditionally,바카라� says Bidyut Chakra­barty, who teaches political science at Delhi University. 바카라�There seems to have been some kind of father-son understanding, with Mulayam allowing Akhilesh to come up on his own.바카라�

Many in the Akhilesh camp, however, do not agree. Mulayam didn바카라�t want to surrender power in the party and wanted equal share for everyone in the family to maintain harmony, they claim, suggesting it was Akhilesh who didn바카라�t want to share power with anyone except his father.

There were other dynamics in the family. Those close to Mulayam (Shivpal, Mulayam바카라�s second wife Sadhna, son Prateek and others), sources say, felt they could 바카라�bargain바카라� only through him. 바카라�There is no evidence that Mulayam was trying to build Akhilesh,바카라� says an official who has worked closely with the young CM. In fact, things did come to such a pass that only Akhilesh and Ram Gopal Yadav were together, while Mulayam and the rest of the family were ranged against them. The high-voltage family feud was reflected even in the annual party function. The more-than-a-week-long cultural extravaganza, Saifai Mahotsav, held towards the end of every year at Mulayam바카라�s native Saifai village in Etawah district, was not held this time despite SP being in power. This is one annual event that the who바카라�s who in the extended SP family attend, but Akhilesh seemed to be least interested in it. This time, such was the family feud that Akhilesh was not ready to bend.

When Akhilesh won the symbol, some observers equated it in significance with Rajnath Singh announcing Narendra Modi as the BJP바카라�s prime ministerial candidate in Goa, in the run-up to the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, while sidelining all the senior leaders. 바카라�It went down well with the party workers, who were ­euphoric and almost felt as if Modi had already bec­ome the PM,바카라� says an observer. 바카라�There is similar winnability factor ­attached to Akhilesh following the EC verdict.바카라�

It is believed Akhilesh was all set with posters, banners and films documenting his achievements in development projects, women바카라�s welfare and other schemes, as well as depicting him as a family man. The party, of course, had to put the distribution on hold until the EC verdict was announced because every campaign ­material sported the bicycle symbol, but it also shows Akhilesh was confident about ­retaining the election symbol.

But the confidence clearly does not ­extend to winning the election on its own. In an address to workers in party office last October, Mulayam had said that Muslims were getting disillusioned with the SP, making Akhilesh almost snatch the mike from him. Mulayam has been repeatedly showing the red flag to his CM son on this matter. According to a source, the only reason Akhilesh feels compelled to go with the Congress is the need to consolidate the SP바카라�s Muslim votebank. 바카라�Akhilesh understands politics,바카라� says a source. 바카라�He won바카라�t be sentimental, but practical and realistic on seat-sharing with the Congress.바카라�

Indeed, Akhilesh will need some of that pragmatism, considering that the prolonged family feud in the SP had left several SP men confused, with a few even shifting their loyalty elsewhere. For INS­tance, Mulayam바카라�s main leader in Agra district, MLA and former minister Raja Mahendra Aridaman Singh, returned to the BJP recently after four years in the SP.

The BJP, meanwhile, is faced with the disillusionment of the Jats, who have traditionally supported the party, but seem to have turned against it since the reservation agitations. After the EC verdict, many in the BJP are happy it would now be a triangular contest (BJP, SP and BSP). Had the SP split, the fight would have narrowed down to one between the BSP and the BJP, whose leaders expected Mayawati바카라�s party to gain from the situation.  

Others in the BJP, though, are rather worried about the SP-­Congress alliance, even though a state leader, Shalabh Mani Tripathi, tells Outlook, 바카라�We will fight on the development issue and are not bothered about the alliance between SP and the Congress. Our development work at the Centre will bring us votes in the state.바카라� And yet, while the BJP campaigns with the slogan of Abki Baar 300 Paar, the BSP is slowly and steadily trying to consolidating its support base across India바카라�s most populous state.

바카라�So was this a family drama or party drama?바카라� asks Shiv Visvanathan, social scientist and political commentator, on what transpired in the SP. 바카라�A family quarrel is a clash of personalities, but a party quarrel is a struggle over ideology and plans for the future. In the SP, there seems to be a complete merging of the two, with every character, except Amar Singh, belonging to the family. The son is young and plans better, so he is deserving; the father is murky, so one doesn바카라�t want him around; and uncles, anyway, always look like Shakuni in Indian drama. That바카라�s the stereotype. I haven바카라�t heard any politician saying the state is critical not only to the electoral drama, but also to the future of Indian democracy. It is the last bridge against the BJP. But everyone is interested only in a game of musical chairs.바카라�