How Akhilesh Yadav won the SP power struggle

LUCKNOW: Akhilesh Yadav has all but won the power struggle in Samajwadi Party getting the better of some of India s wiliest politicians including his father Mulayam Singh Yadav. How did the son come out on top? By sending a message that he puts party above family and by outmanoeuvring his older crafty opponents. ET spoke to a large number of SP leaders for this story. Most spoke off record. THE DEC 31MEETING The last day of last year saw Akhilesh definitively winning the intra-party battle. He had convened a meeting of party MLAs. The chief minister had been expelled from the party a day earlier by his father and party president Mulayam. A constitutional crisis was developing in UP. The CM could have been required to prove majority on the floor of the house. But unknown to most including those present at the meeting 17 MLAs of Bahujan Samaj Party and seven from Congress had reached out to Team Akhilesh. They were willing to leave their parties and support Akhilesh. A few had even turned up at the MLA meet and were made to sit in a separate room said a minister close to the CM. But Akhilesh did not need the support. By the time the meeting ended he had the support of 222 party MLAs eighteen more than the number required to prove majority. At a meeting called by Mulayam and Shivpal Yadav on the same day only eleven MLAs turned up. Shivpal had made excellent arrangements and the best caterers were hired said a party MLA. But after waiting for a bit the gates of his house were thrown open to people standing outside. They were http://linkbacksgets.blogminds.com/backlinks-html-code-easy-solutions-to-increase-backlinks-and-traffic-817385 told Shivpal would address them. That way the food did not all go waste the MLA said. The night before the meeting Shivpal made multiple calls to all party MLAs telling them to turn up promising tickets on the spot to those who attended. But most did not even talk to him or take his calls. The man who thought he controlled the party was not able to speak to his own MLAs. What could be more humiliating than that? the MLA said. He added that if even 50 MLAs had turned up the plan was to march to the governor s house and get the state government dismissed. SP veterans pointed out that of the 5 MPs from the Yadav family only Mulayam was against Akhilesh. If one excluded Dimple Yadav Akhilesh s wife it still meant three cousins of the CM who were SP MPs supported him. That s because the veterans said these family members knew Mulayam was being given bad advice . A party leader close to Akhilesh told ET that the December 31meeting was called in part because the CM knew that Mulayam had been taken by Amar Singh to meet a leader from a big political rival of SP . Mulayam had not been accompanied by his security team for that meeting. This showed swift action needed to be taken to prevent damage to SP the leader said. And Akhilesh took that swift action he added. THE CM S STRATEGY How did the support for Akhilesh come around? Another close aide of the CM told ET that Akhilesh had been pushed to the corner when Shivpal Yadav announced the list of candidates in which Akhilesh s core supporters Arvind Singh Gope and Ram Gobind Chaudhery were absent. Arvind Singh Gope and Ram Gobind have won by huge margins and are big leaders. The message was only Shivpal loyalists would be entertained the person quoted above said. Akhilesh asked his father to reconsider. He released his own list shortly after with all his loyalists on the list. It was a masterstroke by the CM because the message that went out was that he could fight with his family for his supporters the person said. Of the over 200 MLAs that showed up http://speedssd.blogdon.net/disk-speed-test-windows-8-1-how-must-i-improve-my-pc-performance-1441556 at Akhilesh s meet 80 were those who had strong local political bases the person said. So the support is from the strongest quarters of the party. This support also came because the chiefminister ensured that all the 150 people who were part of his Kranti Rath in 2012 were adjusted in the party or the government. He doesn t forget anyone who stands by him. Netaji has even forgotten people like Arvind Singh Gope and Ram Gobind Chaudhery who were instrumental in getting the SP to form the government in 2003 the person added. TACTICAL TRIUMPH SP leaders talk endlessly of Akhilesh s tactical nous. At the SP meet on October 24 last year Akhilesh s head of security was told by Shivpal Yadav that the CM should not come because the situation was dangerous a senior SP leader recalled. But the CM went scotching the plan by the Shivpal camp to make a major announcement in Akhilesh s absence. The November 3 Rath Yatra of the CM which attracted a big crowd despite Shivpal warning MLAs not to participate further consolidated the CM s hold over the party. Ram Gopal Yadav Akhilesh loyalist and strategist recorded every detail of participation by leaders and legislators in the December 31 meeting and plans to do so for party events in January too. This another SP https://architizer.com/users/convert-pngjpgs/ leader said is to ensure solid evidence can be given to the Election Commission if the need arises. Akhilesh was told by his core group of advisers Chaudhery Gope Abhishek Mishra Shailendra Yadav to take the difficult but necessary step of taking control of the party to prevent it from going away to conspirators. Akhilesh is widely seen as Ajatshatru now - the man with no enemies. Netaji on the other hand has become Bindusar the emperor who is making it difficult for his own son to claim the legacy that is rightfully his an SP MLA said. Akhilesh had told his party MLAs a senior SP leader said that he will win this election and it will be a gift for his father. And that his father can then pick the chief minister. That statement the leader said showed a high degree of political maturity and practical nous. The focus is now shifting to alliances. The alliance with Congress and smaller parties is almost sealed say senior party leaders. The young CM is now firmly in the saddle; there s a new Netaji in Lucknow. Written by Manoj C G | New Delhi | Updated: January 3 2017 11:24 am Akhilesh Yadav. On the day the Congress compared the family feud in the Samajwadi Party to a 1990s soap opera and parried questions on the possibility of an alliance with Akhilesh Yadav for the UP assembly elections a majority of the Congress MLAs in the state spoke in favour of a pre-poll pact with the SP under the Chief Minister saying he is popular has a clean image and that secular parties should unite to defeat communal forces . At the AICC briefing Monday Manish Tewari said the SP power tussle was the climax of a concerted power struggle over the past five years and likened it to a 1990s soap opera. He said the Congress can make a comment on an alliance only when there is a certain amount of stability and equilibrium when it can dispassionately appreciate the political situation. WATCH VIDEO | Samajwadi Party Symbol Is My Identity I have Done Nothing Wrong: Mulayam Singh Yadav But 16 of the 20 UP Congress MLAs had a different take on the alliance issue. As many as ten MLAs said the party should enter into an alliance with Akhilesh. Here s what the Congress MLAs told The Indian Express: Kaushal Kishore Singh Munna (Nautanwa): Both should do it Congress and Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav. Because the target of both is the same. Have you seen the movie Batwara? Vinod Khanna and Dharmendra were the heroes. When they came together only then could kill the target. Vivek Kumar Singh (Banda): If Akhilesh Congress and RLD come together to fight the elections you will see that the BJP will be a flop. Congress has 10-11 per cent of the votes. Plus the SP and RLD. Samajwadi Party means Akhilesh now. He has become the face of SP. Gajraj Singh (Hapur): When casteist forces are on an upsurge and when you look at the atmosphere in the country I think if all secular forces come together then we can give a befitting reply to those who want to take the country to the pits. In my view there should be an alliance with Akhilesh. Lalitesh Pati Tripathi (Marihan): If the Congress could come to power it will be best. But the second best alternative is Akhilesh because he listens to MLAs and has done some work in our constituencies. He is approachable and has a good image. Ajay Kapoor (Kidwai Nagar): Party should 100 per cent enter into an alliance because the government will be formed by Akhilesh as he is the biggest face in UP. He has a clean image. Like Nitish Kumar formed the government in Bihar he will form the government. Nobody can stop that. WATCH VIDEO | Samajwadi Party Crisis: Mulayam Singh Isolated? Scales Tilt In Favour Of Akhilesh Yadav Radhey Shyam Kannaujia (Jagdishpur): My personal view is that now there is no way other than entering into an alliance. I think Congress should enter into an alliance with http://antivirusturnoffs.thezenweb.com/ Akhilesh. We have to keep in mind 2019 as well. Umakanti Singh (Kalpi): There should be alliance it will be beneficial to both parties to fight communal parties in Bihar it was successful and if an alliance takes shape here it will be successful. Pankaj Kumar Malik (Shamli): All secular forces should come together to defeat communal forces. It will be beneficial. It was beneficial in Bihar. Ajay Rai (Pindra): The Congress should fight the elections alone. Because this is the time for the Congress to show its strength. It (the bickering in SP) will be beneficial for Congress because SP s votes will break and will come to the Congress. Especially the minority votes. Aradhana Mishra (Rampur Khas): State Congress president Raj Babbar has already made it clear that we are not going for any kind of alliance with anybody. This is a decision taken by our senior leadership. We have been working on our own for the past three months. Akhilesh Pratap Singh (Rudrapur): I don t know. The higher-ups will know. I have no view. I know about myself. I will win whether there is alliance or not. It does not matter to me. CLP leader Pradeep Mathur (Mathura): Party is closely watching the situation and is fingers crossed. So far the party has decided to go alone. There is still lot of time left for elections and it is not in a hurry. Our party will be deciding accordingly on this issue. WATCH VIDEO| Mujhe Mere Haal Pe Chor Do Says Amar Singh Questions His Faults Over Samajwadi Party Family Feud Gayadeen Anuragi (Rath) Ajay Kumar (Tamkuhi) and Anugrah Narayan Singh (Allahabad North) said they will abide by whatever decision the party takes. # Two MLAs favoured an alliance but refused to speak on record. One of them said everybody from the grassroots worker to the top leadership http://hwbot.org/user/downloadrouter/ wants an alliance with Akhilesh Yadav. NEW DELHI: Uttar Pradesh chief minister Akhilesh Yadav has a Plan B in place in case the feud in the Samajwadi Party prevents him from fielding candidates in the coming assembly polls on SP s cycle symbol . The Samajwadi Janata Party (Rashtriya) (SJP-R) the party of the late Chandra Shekhar who was PM for seven months in the early 1990s could come to Akhilesh s rescue in case the SP s symbol is frozen by the Election Commission. SJP(R) s current president Kamal Morarka has offered Akhilesh the option of contesting the assembly polls in Uttar Pradesh on the party s tree symbol. We have heard Kamal Morarka has consulted Akhilesh Yadav confirmed a Samajwadi Party leader who has been a trusted team member of the Akhilesh camp. We are hopeful that the Election Commission will rule in our favour as most of the national executive members and elected representatives were present in the meeting he added asserting that Akhilesh was elected SP president in accordance with its bylaws and with the requisite numbers. The option however comes at a cost. Fighting polls on the symbol of another party will undermine the Akhilesh camp s claim to be the real Samajwadi Party and more crucially to the party s cycle symbol. The leader who hinted at the Akhilesh camp being in touch with Morarka was associated with Chandra Shekhar also. The SJP(R) was founded by Chandra Shekhar and he led the party until his death on July 8 2007. Shekhar was the only Lok Sabha MP of the party at the time of his death. The party was formed on November 5 1990 when Chandra Shekhar and Haryana leader Devi Lal broke from Janata Dal with 60 MPs and formed a government with Congress support which lasted seven months. Kamal Morarka who was minister in the government headed by Chandra Shekhar is the current head of the party. In April 2015 Morarka was also present in the meeting of the Janata Parivar splinters at Mulayam Singh Yadav s residence in Lucknow exploring the merger of their parties to forge a national anti-BJP front. However Mulayam had backtracked leaving the entire plan in limbo. One of the ministers in the Akhilesh government Ram Govind Choudhary was SJP president until he joined the Samajwadi Party. Choudhary is currently an MLA from Bansdih in Ballia and was one of the prominent names dropped from the Samajwadi Party list of candidates finalised by Mulayam and Shivpal. Chandra Shekhar s son Neeraj Shekhar a Rajya Sabha MP is also among the trusted loyalists of Akhilesh Yadav. However one acquaintance of Morarka claimed that the latter had not approached Akhilesh or his camp and it was only a rumour floated by a section of Akhilesh loyalists. Extending her support to Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav his West Bengal counterpart Mamata Banerjee has wished him well and asked him to stay strong. Sources said Mamata spoke to Akhilesh last evening for about three minutes. The Trinamool Congress (TMC) supremo s support comes in the wake of Akhilesh s suspension from the Samajwadi Party for six years. Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav yesterday expelled Akhilesh and national general secretary Ram Gopal Yadav from the party for six years over indiscipline. This move comes after Akhilesh had released a list of 235 candidates out of the total 403 seats for upcoming state assembly elections on Thursday rejecting the list announced by Mulayam Singh http://www.justluxe.com/community/view-profile.php?p_id=43320 Yadav on Wednesday. Akhilesh s name did not figure in the first list. Mulayam said his son being the Chief Minister can contest from any assembly seat he wishes to. Written by Lalmani Verma | Lucknow | Updated: December 27 2016 4:07 am UP Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav. (File Photo) IN A move that could reopen the rift between Akhilesh Yadav and his uncle and Samajwadi Party s Uttar Pradesh unit president Shivpal Yadav the chief minister is learnt to have met party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav on Sunday and handed over a list of probable candidates for all the 403 constituencies in the state. While Shivpal is supposed to declare candidates on behalf of the party and had late Sunday afternoon tweeted that 175 people have so far been given tickets SP insiders say Akhilesh s move to finalise probables for all the seats is his way of sending across the message that he will play a significant role in ticket distribution. Akhilesh had convened a meeting with more than 100 party MLAs at his residence in Lucknow over Friday and Saturday and had reportedly assured them that every SP legislator who has done good work in his or her constituency would be fielded again in the state elections scheduled early next year. Watch What Else Is making News While there was no official confirmation on names proposed by the CM sources said gangster-turned-politician Atiq Ahmed and jailed don Mukhtar Ansari s brother Sibghatullah Ansari do not figure in his list. Shivpal has announced the candidature of both Atiq and Sibghatullah. Ansari s party the Quami Ekta Dal (QED) had been merged with the SP recently despite stiff opposition from Akhilesh and the feud between the CM and his uncle had come out in public soon after Shivpal announced QED s merger in early October. Mulayam had later brokered peace tenuous at best. On Monday asked about the list of probables the CM gave to the party supremo Shivpal said he has no such information. He insisted that SP candidates will be announced with consent of senior leaders . The matter of ticket (distribution) will be cleared. As soon as elections are announced all problems will be resolved . There is no problem why are you (media) creating problems Shivpal asked. Akhilesh s latest move to stamp his authority came a day after party s Rajya Sabha MP Amar Singh on Saturday had a brief meeting with Shivpal in Lucknow and both later met Mulayam at the latter s Lucknow residence. The CM has no love lost for Singh and has given enough indications that he is not happy with the latter s presence in SP. On his part Singh who made his first visit to Lucknow after his name had come up in the Yadav family feud back in September had refused to divulge details of Saturday s meeting. Emphasising that Akhilesh has assured his supporters during the meeting with first-time MLAs last week that he will stand up for them during selection of party candidates an SP leader close to the CM said Now it is up to Neta-ji (Mulayam) to take the final decision (on candidates). At an event in September Akhilesh had made it clear that he would want a say in selection of party candidates since the elections will be a test for his government. On October 3 soon after Shivpal announced candidates for nine Assembly seats including that of Amanmani Tripathi who is facing a CBI probe into his wife s murder and also changed candidates on 17 other constituencies Akhilesh had said that he was not aware of the decision. LUCKNOW: Chief minister Akhilesh Yadav s parallel list of 403 candidates comprising largely his loyalists for the Assembly elections in 2017 has triggered off fresh rounds of feud in the already divided Yadav http://www.cyprus.com/user/collate-printings.html?section=member_info family and the Samajwadi Party. The CM has now his own list of candidates while the party has its own giving rise to a baffling situation in the ruling party. Akhilesh has simultaneously hinted at resuming his rath yatra. The unilateral declaration of the list is similar to Akhilesh s surprise decision to embark on rath yatra on October 5 forcing party leadership including father and SP chief Mulayam Singh Yadav to follow him. The chief minister was feeling marginalised by the http://www.instructables.com/member/docxtopdfs/ way state president of the party Shivpal Yadav had been declaring tickets without consulting him and was compelled to announce his own list said Udaybir Singh Samajwadi Party MLC who was sacked for his letter against Mulayam but has continued to be an advisor to Akhilesh. Political analysts say that by selecting candidates for all 403 seats of the state Akhilesh had also indicated that any possibility of an alliance with any party has now ended at least from his end. Akhilesh Yadav submitted his list of candidates for the 403 assembly constituencies to Mulayam late Sunday evening which may trigger another round of feud within the Yadav family in which Mulayam and his brother Shivpal Yadav are seen on the one side and Akhilesh is on the opposite side supported only by Mulayam s cousin party general secretary Ram Gopal Yadav. The Mulayam-Shivpal Yadav camp had announced 175 candidates in the past three months without consulting the CM. Akhilesh has been feeling marginalised the way he and his loyalists were being downsized. All chiefs of youth wings who had been loyal to him were removed and replaced with new faces mostly loyalists of Shivpal Yadav besides half of the district presidents of the party and a good number of party candidates and MLAs close to Akhilesh who were replaced with Shivpal s men under Mulayam s directions. On Monday Ram Pal Yadav whose illegal construction on city outskirts had been demolished on the directions of the chief minister and who was later even sacked from the party was reinstated. Earlier Gayatri Prajapati who had been sacked from the government by Akhilesh was not only reinstated Mulayam elevated him on Monday as national secretary of the party. The election has to be fought in the name of Akhilesh Yadav his impeccable record popularity and good performance so it is advisable that he be given free hand to pick names said Udaybir further. A senior minister close to Shivpal on the other hand argued Akhilesh Yadav is not the party. He has to follow the procedure before announcing the names of the candidates . Mulayam and Shivpal who have so far not reacted to the list maintained a stoic silence though they were together for over four hours on Monday. In his list Akhilesh has not included hardcore criminals and mafia dons opposed to Shivpal for whom winnability of a candidate will be the only criterion for ticket distribution.