April 20, 2024

The battle in the MSY parivar, and by extension in the Samajvadi Party, is showing no sign of abating. In fact, new developments in the last few days have escalated it to a level where the party might split any day. Udayveer Singh, a MLC of the party close to Akhilesh Yadav, wrote a letter to Mulayam Singh Yadav where he alleged that MSY’s second wife was using ‘black magic’ against Akhilesh. He also asked Mulayam to abdicate the party chief’s post in favour of Akhilesh. He was expelled from the party on Saturday. Before that, Akhilesh Yadav announced that he will not attend a party function and will embark, alone, on ‘Samajvadi Vikas Rath Yatra’ on November 3.

These two developments have broken the public lull that had descended after the much publicized spat between Akhilesh and his uncle Shivpal Yadav. But internal machinations were going on full steam in both the family and the party. While the old guard seems to be with MSY, the young turks in the party are favouring Akhilesh. The role of Mulayam’s second wife is now increasingly being put under the scanner. Although the party has reluctantly put out that Akhilesh will remain the CM if it wins, this has not mollified the Akhilesh camp which is up in arms against the leadership for what it considers daily insults and clipping of wings of its supporters by Shivpal Yadav.

Samajvadi Party was precariously placed in the UP election stakes even before the dirty linen was washed in public, mainly due to the pedestrian tenure of Akhilesh Yadav. But after this endless family bickering, it has slipped badly. Given that MSY and Shivpal Yadav (as state party chief) will have a major say in the distribution of tickets, there will be a lot of Samajvadi rebels fighting the elections. This will queer the pitch further. A resurgent Bahujan Samaj Party and the win-at-all-costs attitude of Amit Shah for the BJP will relegate the Samajvadi Party to the status of an also-ran.

MSY and Akhilesh need to bury the hatchet if they have any pretensions of putting up a decent fight, let alone win the elections. But that seems a remote possibility as of now. Attitudes have hardened in both camps and rumours and whisper campaigns are common. Governance has come to a standstill. Between the family tiff, the Samajvadi Vikas Rath Yatra and the proposed Ramlila Theme Park at Ayodhya, the CM has little time to give to the people of UP. This is what people get when they vote for family firms masquerading as political parties.