This is the tale of two political parties, of power, intrigue, family squabbles and ambition. The plots, 22 years apart, are set in two historical cities — Hyderabad and Lucknow. and the plots are 22 years apart.

The high drama that has gripped the Samajwadi Party (SP) in Uttar Pradesh reminds one of the upheavals in (erstwhile) Andhra Pradesh’s Telugu Desam Party (TDP) in 1995. What’s more, both parties share their symbols too — the cycle.

By all indications, the SP, founded by the 77-year-old Mulayam Singh Yadav in 1992, is heading for a split. The split could not have come at a more inappropriate time for the party, with elections to the UP Assembly imminent. It’s clear that the vast majority of SP’s legislators are with Akhilesh Yadav, the 44-year-old Chief Minister, even while his father Mulayam, fondly called ‘Netaji’, is fighting a losing battle.

Power struggle

Akhilesh, who has brought a youthful face to the Uttar Pradesh’s politics cannot afford a division, but with a separate entity, which will be rid of baggage, can chart his own political course in the long term.

In contrast, the charismatic NT Rama Rao had come back to power in 1994 with his TDP bagging a thumping majority in elections to the 294-member Andhra Pradesh Legislative Assembly. And then, in a story that had all the trappings of a potboiler, Rama Rao’s ambitious son-in-law, N Chandrababu Naidu, then a 45-year-old, staged the infamous August revolt. He secured the backing of a majority of the TDP’s MLAs, held them captive in hotels for a few days, and eventually dethroned NTR.

Naidu then tactfully divided the party, and managed to secure the ‘cycle’ symbol, and completed the TDP’s full term that ended in 1999.

Family feud

The troubles in Uttar Pradesh’s ruling party that began brewing in 2016 came to a head towards the end of the year. On the one side are Akhilesh and his more than 200 MLAs. On the other, are Mulayam, his brother Shivpal Yadav and a small group of legislators. Insiders point to the growing demands of Mulayam’s second wife Shalini Gupta — who wants a bigger role for her son — and the patriarch’s insistence on a key position for himself, as some of the driving forces behind the desperate action. The behind-the-scenes political manoeuvring by Amar Singh is also keeping the fires burning in this ongoing saga.

In the TDP, it was the entry of Lakshmi Parvathi into NTR’s life — the thespian-turned-politician had lost his wife Basava Tarakam in 1985 — that exacted a toll on the ties between the TDP chief and his large family of half-a-dozen sons, and sons-in-law Chandrababu Naidu and D Venkateswara Rao. Parvathi, who was initially NTR’s biographer, had begun wielding a lot of influence, resulting in the leader remaining aloof from his legislators.

Sensing an opportunity, Naidu mobilised the support of a majority of legislators and expelled NTR from the posts of party President and Chief Minister in 1995. Interestingly, NTR had wanted to disband the TDP. However, the faction led by Lakshmi Parvathi contested NTR’s decision, and the matter of the symbol went up to the Election Commission.

Fight for the cycle

Former Election Commissioners have been quoted as saying that the process of allocating the party symbol to the real SP would take a couple of months — which will not help the factions as elections are round the corner.

In the 1995 fight, the then Election Commissioner TN Seshan quickly allotted the ‘original party’ status and symbol to Naidu’s faction. Tact, swift moves, and the use of good offices in New Delhi aided him. It is now common knowledge that Naidu emerged stronger to become a national leader, while NTR faded away with bad health. He passed away in January 1996 at the age of 72, but not before marrying Parvathi, who retained a TDP faction that hardly had any relevance.

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