SP lines up back-to-back meets under shadow of bitter feud

With the spectre of bitter infighting looming large over it, the ruling Samajwadi Party has lined up back-to-back crucial meetings to gauge the mood of party workers at a time when Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections are just a few months away.

A meeting of all district presidents has been convened at the SP headquarters here on Friday by state party chief Shivpal Yadav, while the party’ state executive will meet here the next day.

Besides Shivpal, party supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav and national general secretary Ramgopal Yadav are expected to be present.

Mulayam, who has been seen standing with brother Shivpal, has also convened a meeting of party legislators and ministers on October 24 to “gauge the mood” of partymen and people of their area.

“After the meeting, Mulayam might take some tough decisions in the run up to assembly polls. The objective behind the exercise is to show unity within the party but in the present circumstances, it did appear to be happening with Akhilesh and Shivpal supporters stiff on their stands,” a senior SP leader said on Thursday.

After the chief minister announced his decision to take out his solo ‘Rath Yatra’ on November 3, SP MLC Udayveer Singh wrote a letter to Mulayam demanding that Akhilesh Yadav be made the national president. Another party MLC Ashu Malik sent a missive in favour of Mulayam, saying he was peeved over fingers being pointed at the “great leader”. 

“SP state president Shivpal Yadav and other members of his family have misled you (Mulayam) and hatched a conspiracy against CM Akhilesh who should be made party national president and given all the powers,” Udayveer said in a four page letter to Mulayam. 

Defending expelled youth leaders, including MLCs, he said, “They were expelled on false grounds and it is against social justice.” 

The MLC also attacked Shivpal for supporting gangster- turned-politician Mukhtar Ansari’s Quami Ekta Dal (QED) and making allegations that party leaders of Mainpuri were involved in land grabbing and illegal liquor business.

He alleged that Mulayam was “motivating” Shivpal to make such allegations and not acting when an MLA and Mainpuri district unit chief issued a press notes making objectionable comments against SP national general secretary Ram Gopal Yadav.

“A conspiracy was hatched against Akhilesh in 2012 within the family and Shivpal contacted various leaders to stop Mulayam from making him the chief minister,” he alleged.

Udayveer also dubbed SP’s RS member Amar Singh as “chatur and chaalbaaz” (cunning). Interestingly, during the feud between Shivpal and Akhilesh, Amar was seen as the one who had engineered it.