Mulayam outburst bares SP’s cracks; BJP, BSP look to cash in

Cracks in the Samajwadi Party (SP) have widened at the most opportune time for main rivals BJP and the BSP, both of whom accused Uttar Pradesh’s ruling party of putting the “interests of the Yadav clan” above the welfare of the State.

At an Independence Day function in Lucknow on Monday, SP chief Mulayam Singh Yadav caused a flutter by attacking his son and State Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav for ignoring his uncle Shivpal Yadav. “Shivpal is doing good work. He has threatened to resign. If he resigns, a lot of people will go with him,” Mulayam said to a visibly uncomfortable Akhilesh Yadav.

Attacking the “ruling dispensation”, which amounted to criticism of Akhilesh at a public function, Mulayam threatened to release within eight days a list of people who need to be sacked from the SP unless his son “mends his ways”.

This public outburst suits the SP’s rivals, coming as it does only a few months away from State elections. The differences between Mulayam’s brother Shivpal Yadav, who had chief ministerial ambitions before Mulayam anointed his son for the post, and Akhilesh Yadav, have been growing in the last four years.

The last main point of contention between Akhilesh and Shivpal was the merger of the Qaumi Ekta Dal, a regional outfit headed by mafia don Mukhtar Ansari. Akhilesh resisted the move because he did not want SP to be identified with a mafia party and also be labelled “communal”. Shivpal has since accused the Akhilesh-led government of “misrule” and, as Mulayam said publicly, been threatening to quit.

The BJP was clearly delighted by the turn of events, with party National Secretary Sidharth Nath Singh on Tuesday accusing Mulayam of putting his son’s interests above that of the State, and daring him to take action against party leaders accused of land-grabbing and running illegal businesses.

Singh said Mulayam had publicly attacked the dispensation headed by his son five times since it came to power in 2012, stressing that it amounted to calling it an “unsuccessful government”. He suggested that Mulayam should apologise to the people as he had sought votes in his own name and then made Akhilesh the Chief Minister.

“Are the son’s interests above the state’s interests for you? Why have you not made him resign?” he asked Yadav. “I also want to ask him if SP will face elections with this unsuccessful Chief Minister. It is clear that SP has conceded defeat even before the election bugle has been sounded,” he said.

The BSP too joined in, asserting that the people of UP are caught in bind because of family disputes in the SP. “The people of UP are caught in the crossfire between father and son and uncle and nephew. They have made governance and administration of Uttar Pradesh a part of their family discord,” said BSP leader Sudhindra Bhadoria.