SP rift widens, Akhilesh may skip party bash

UP CM announces party’s election campaign, not cleared by Mulayam

Chief minister Akhilesh Yadav “unilaterally” decided on Wednesday to kickstart the Samajwadi Party’s poll campaign, a move that may also make him skip a mega party event, deepening a bruising feud within Uttar Pradesh’s ruling family. His statewide “Vikas se Vijay Yatra” starts on November 3, two days before the party begins its silver jubilee celebrations in Lucknow.

The Samajwadi Party has looked divided between the CM and his uncle Shivpal Yadav. Recent decisions on ticket distribution, ministers, officials and political alliances have suggested that the party’s national chief, Mulayam Singh Yadav, is backing Shivpal Yadav over his CM son.

Sources said that after his father did not clear the poll campaign schedule, Akhilesh Yadav chose to write a letter, also released to the media, to inform him about the move. The CM has not sought clearance for the campaign, asserting himself in a party long dominated by his father and uncles.

“I wanted to start the campaign from October 3, which got delayed due to some reasons. I now intend to start it without much delay,” he has written. During the campaign, the CM will tell the people of the achievements of his government. He is also likely to rally support for himself and his supporters.

The CM’s stand comes

I wanted to start the campaign from October 3, which got delayed due to some reasons. I now intend to start it without much delay. — Akhilesh

Yadav, UP CM

days after he said in an interview that he had to name himself because there was nobody to name him, to which his father said that there was “nothing great about keeping one’s own name”.

A damaging power struggle in the Yadav clan came out in the open last month when Akhilesh Yadav stripped Shivpal Yadav of key portfolios hours after Mulayam Singh Yadav replaced the CM with his brother as the SP’s UP chief.

Though the patriarch managed to broker a truce between the two power centers, pulling the party from the brink of a potential split, tensions remain, threatening to derail the Yadav clan’s bid to retain power in the elections due early next year.

While the BJP wants to repeat its 2014 Lok Sabha poll success, Mayawati-led Bahujan Samaj Party is looking at a comeback in the state. In his letter, the CM has pointed out that the SP is lagging while other parties have already hit the campaign trail.

After the “truce”, Shivpal Yadav carried out a “purge” of young SP leaders close to the CM. Sources said youth leaders, including those expelled, will take care of the arrangements during the campaign. The CM has in his letter said he will be informing the district units about his “yatra” route from time to time. The CM’s supporters have already declared that they will not attend the party’s silver jubilee function.