The Cub Gets The 'SP' Goat!

Akhilesh Yadav turns the tables in the bitter SP family feud to emerge definitively from Mulayam's shadow.

- Ashish Misra

New Year’s Day marked a watershed in Uttar Pradesh’s politics. All along the roads leading to Lucknow’s Janeshwar Mishra Park, walls were plastered with posters of Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav. Hoardings came up overnight. The venue of the special national convention organised by the Samajwadi Party (SP) was a picture of Akhilesh’s dominance in the party. On the dais, a big chair with a table had been placed in the centre of the front row, for Akhilesh. Flanking him were loyalists of father Mulayam Singh Yadav: SP veteran Rewati Raman Singh, party general secretary Kiranmoy Nanda, Rajya Sabha MP Naresh Agarwal, among others. In the course of the event, the long-speculated power shift in the party was formalised. Akhilesh was unanimously chosen the SP’s national president and former boss Mulayam was declared the party’s patron. While Akhilesh-baiter and Mulayam’s brother Shivpal Singh was removed as the party’s president in UP, Mulayam confidant Amar Singh got the boot.