Father, Son And Holy Bike

The SP emerges in one piece from the ‘family feud’, with some deft manoeuvring by Mulayam.

- Bula Devi

The drama is over and the curtain has fallen. The speculated split in the Samajwadi Party (SP) did not happen and the party retained its elector­al symbol—the bicycle. ‘Neta­ ji’ Mulayam Singh Yadav has put ‘Tipu’ ahead of his brothers and put his stamp of approval on son Akh­ilesh Yadav as the undisputed leader of the party. Staying flexible without losing the scripted plot, Mulayam all­ owed Akhilesh to come up on his own with the support of his legislators—in effect, patronising his son without appearing to be backing him. He did not submit individual affidavits by legislators to the Election Commis­sion (EC) to counter his son’s claim even though he had a galaxy of emi­nent lawyers to argue his case. The indications were clear. He allowed son ­CM­ and­ now ­party­ president Akhilesh to have a walkover.

Rajya Sabha MP and SP leader Ram Gopal Yadav has now submitted a caveat in the Supreme Court on the symbol issue, preempting Mulayam’s younger brother and trusted counsel Shivpal Yadav and others from moving court. To Akhilesh, both “wheeler-dealer” and “uncle” Amar Singh and “chacha” Shivpal are irritants.

Sources say Akhilesh seemed confident on the symbol issue. He invited some selected journalists to his official residence on January 17, a day after the EC verdict, but they were not allowed to bring in cameras or mobile phones. They were told that when Akhilesh went to meet Mulayam at night, after the EC verdict,

“Netaji was happy” and “we cannot be separated”. Father and son managed to hog the limelight, eclipsing developments in the other political parties in the fray.