All is not still not well in ruling Samajwadi Party, hit by family feud, as reflected in its sudden decision to abruptly cancel the proposed rally of party supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav in Azamgarh on October 6. “The rally proposed on October 6 in Azamgarh is cancelled. The new dates will be finalised soon,” a party leader said.
A decision in this regard was taken by Mulayam after meeting party’s state president Shivpal Yadav and cabinet minister Balram Yadav, who represents Azamgarh in the assembly and was made in-charge of the rally. With the rally, SP was going to kickstart its 2017 assembly election campaign.
Earlier, Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav on September 17 postponed Samajwadi Vikas Rath Yatra, scheduled on October 3, saying the dates would be announced later. “I will lay the foundation stone of metro works in Kanpur on October 4. The date of the yatra will be decided. Time has changed, now I will see from which ‘disha’ (direction) and time it should start,” he had said.
Mulayam’s little patience with an increasingly assertive Akhilesh and his youth leaders was evident on Saturday, when he gave an earful to them, saying: “You all are sloganeering only out of sycophancy. You have not been able to form booth panel while Amit Shah has taken a lead”.
That talks between Mulayam and Akhilesh had broken down was also evident from the fact that after the latest feud erupted on Tuesday, Akhilesh refused to go to Mulayam in Delhi. It was only when Mulayam came to Lucknow two days later that Akhilesh went to meet him.
The tension between the two have been simmering for long, and only became more pronounced in 2014.In 2012, Akhilesh inherited a cabinet that Mulayam had formed in 2003-07, with little changes.
Akhilesh blamed Usmani for delaying development projects. Mulayam did not take to Usmani’s sacking lightly and later at a public function told Akhilesh: “Do not fall for sycophant officers, who will desert you eventually. Usmani is present here. He used to work efficiently for me, but somehow you have not been able to take work from him. ”
Akhilesh had also insisted on sacking Raghuraj Pratap Singh “Raja Bhaiyya” in 2013, after his name cropped up in the murder of Deputy SP Zia Ul Haq. Mulayam was dead against sacking Singh. Mulayam intervened later and ensured that Singh was back in the cabinet.
In June 2014, in the course of an interaction with ET, Akhilesh lashed out a IAS officer who is the son of a former Rajya Sabha MP of SP. Within days he was shunted to an insignificant post, much to Mulayam’s chargin. Shivpal later rehabilitated the officer in his ministry.
Akhilesh had told “I know what is happening around me. It is just that we are taught to respect our elders. But if things go far I will crack the whip”. Such actions against his loyalists by Akhilesh often led Mulayam to say the government’s performance was poor.
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