Infighting escalates in SP as Shivpal sacks Akhilesh loyalists

With complaining nephews and suspended Akhilesh Yadav supporters making a beeline for Mulayam Singh Yadav’s home in Delhi, the truce the Samajwadi Party (SP) supremo had brokered between his bickering brother and son last week seems to have been short-lived.

While opposition parties, especially the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), are clearly chuffed with the proceedings, the power tussle in the SP continued and the fragile peace between Mulayam’s son Akhilesh and brother Shivpal Singh Yadav is all but dissipated.

Shivpal, the man whose authority in the organisational structures of the SP is second only to Mulayam, had started asserting himself from the day he took over as chief of the party’s Uttar Pradesh unit.

“No factionalism will be tolerated in SP. I am under orders from Netaji to ensure SP’s victory in 2017 elections. We all have to forget our differences and work towards that goal,” Shivpal said in Lucknow.

It is learnt that a massive overhaul of the party structure is planned this week as Shivpal, who had generously stepped aside when Mulayam anointed his son Akhilesh as SP’s chief ministerial candidate in 2012, seeks to reassert his authority in the coming days.

The ongoing “clean-up” by Shivpal is being seen in the light of the fact that over the years, Akhilesh has been trying to break down old hierarchies represented by Mulayam, Shivpal and Amar Singh, whose re-entry was recently facilitated by the Mulayam-Shivpal duo.

The transfer-postings of important officials in the UP administration, the most recent being the appointment of Shivpal loyalist Deepak Singhal as Chief Secretary, became an important bone of contention between the Chief Minister and his various family members.

The tussle finally snowballed into a major crisis last week, when Mulayam removed Akhilesh from the post of SP’s UP unit chief and appointed Shivpal in his stead. Akhilesh responded by sacking Chief Secretary Deepak Singhal and wresting all Cabinet posts from Shivpal. Mulayam finally brokered peace and Shivpal has returned as SP’s UP unit chief, as well as a powerful Cabinet Minister.

But since his reinstatement, Shivpal has been cleansing the party of Akhilesh supporters. On Monday, Shivpal expelled seven party functionaries, including three Members of UP Legislative Council, all considered close to Akhilesh.

Sunil Singh Sajan, Anand Bhadauria and Sanjay Lathar – all MLCs – were thrown out ostensibly for making “derogatory remarks” against Mulayam and “indulging in anti-party activities and indiscipline”, said a statement issued by the SP.

Besides the three MLCs, Mohd Ebad, the State chief of SP’s youth brigade; Brijesh Yadav, State President of SP Yuvjan Sabha; Gaurav Dubey, National President of SP’s youth brigade; and Digvijay Singh Dev, State chief of Chatra Sabha, were all dismissed on similar grounds.

A day earlier, Arvind Yadav, the MLC from Mainpuri and Ramgopal Yadav’s nephew, was removed from the party by Shivpal. Reports said Akshay Yadav, son of Ramgopal, has sought an appointment from Mulayam. Akshay, also the SP MP from Ferozabad, has a litany of fresh complaints against Shivpal Yadav.

BSP supremo Mayawati has dubbed the ongoing power tussle in SP as an effort by Mulayam to save his son from the “ignominy of defeat”.