No Truce in Sight in SP, Is Akhilesh Waiting for a Hard Bargain?

There is a long list of unanswered questions before the ruling party of Uttar Pradesh at the moment.

All efforts of truce appear to have failed between Akhilesh Yadav and party supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav. (Photo: The Quint)

Is this the lull before the final storm raging within the Samajwadi Party ? Well, this seems to be the case now. All efforts of truce appear to have failed and a final showdown could be on the cards soon.

Tuesday morning, party sources said that Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav had agreed to take back the four sacked ministers including uncle and party state unit president Shivpal Yadav into his cabinet.

However, CM Akhilesh went missing from the afternoon party press conference which he had to address with party supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav and uncle Shivpal Yadav.

There is still no news from the chief minister’s office on the re-induction of the ousted ministers.

The old school of thought led by party supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav, brother Shivpal Yadav and Amar Singh are in one team. (Photo: PTI)

Addressing a press conference on Tuesday afternoon, a visibly miffed party supremo Mulayam Singh reiterated that the name of the next chief minister from the party would be decided after the results of the Assembly elections, making his anger and disappointment towards Akhilesh Yadav publicly evident.

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Samajwadi Party Has a Long List of Unanswered Questions

There is a long list of many unanswered questions before the ruling party of Uttar Pradesh at the moment.

After the ugly scenes witnessed in the party meeting on Monday, how could have Akhilesh Yadav simply agreed on taking back sacked ministers including uncle Shivpal Yadav and his close aides Narad Rai, Om Prakash Singh and Shahbad Fatima? The proposal to take the four ministers back, said to have been mooted by the party supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav, did not see light of the day.

Ram Gopal Yadav Still Out of the Party

Ram Gopal Yadav stays expelled from the party. (Photo Courtesy: ANI Screengrab)

Akhilesh's ardent supporter and till Monday, the national general secretary of the party, stays expelled. Sources say that despite Akhilesh's insistence, Mulayam Singh Yadav is not willing to budge an inch to revoke the expulsion of Ram Gopal Yadav. Akhilesh’s plea has clearly met Mulayam’s deaf ears.

"Outsider" Continues to Bat Strongly Within the Party

Rajya Sabha member Amar Singh, who Akhilesh Yadav described as an outsider and broker, continues to get the support of supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav. Despite Akhilesh calling Amar all sorts of names and accusing him of conspiring against him, Mulayam openly defended Amar continuing his Amar Prem. This could be another setback for Akhilesh.

Not just this, there is no word yet on taking back of the young turks of Team Akhilesh in the party. MLCs like Anand Bhadauria, Sunil Sajan, Sanjay Lathar, Uday Veer Singh and many more youth leaders owning allegiance to Akhilesh Yadav were earlier expelled from the party by state party president Shivpal Yadav.

Again on Monday, a dozen Akhilesh supporters were shown the door by Shivpal for raising slogans against him. What will happen to the expelled young brigade now ?

No Change Where the State Party President Is Concerned

Shivpal Yadav continues to be the Party president. (Photo: ANI screengrab)

State party president Shivpal continues to hold the post. There is no proposed change and Mulayam Singh is backing his brother ferociously.

Though Akhilesh has been wanting this powerful position for long, Mulayam seems to be more interested in Shivpal holding this post.

In addition, there is still no clarity on rights of ticket distribution for the Assembly elections. Though Akhilesh has been asserting that he is the chief minister and would be having the final say in ticket distribution for elections, this seems to be a rather hollow claim of his.

Mulayam and Shivpal have not budged. Team Akhilesh was hoping for at least a 50-50 formula to be devised by Mulayam for ticket distribution but this too seems too far-fetched an idea at the moment as Mulayam stands strongly behind Shivpal and there are no signs of this changing.

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Will Akhilesh Continue as a CM With No Power?

Will Uttar Pradesh CM Akhilesh Yadav be forced to take back Shivpal Yadav? (Photo: Reuters)

The Samajwadi Party currently is divided into two parts, one supporting Chief Minister Akhilesh and the other backing the old guard of Mulayam and Shivpal. As things are poised at the moment, there is no sign of let up by the old guard which means that none of Akhilesh’s supporters would get tickets to contest in the upcoming elections. The question is will Akhilesh accept this?

By taking back Shivpal Yadav, will Akhilesh agree to bite the dust again? Earlier too he had to re-induct tainted minister Gayatri Prasad Prajapati and Raj Kishore Singh in his cabinet.

For the time being he does not seem ready to be in a relenting mood or perhaps he is waiting for a hard bargain and his pound of flesh.

(The writer is a freelance TV journalist. He can be reached @avasthivivek. This is an opinion piece and the views expressed above are the author’s own. The Quint neither endorses nor is responsible for the same.)

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