Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav on Friday expelled Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav and General Secretary Ram Gopal Yadav from the party for six years.
Addressing a press conference, Mulayam Singh Yadav said both Ram Gopal Yadav and Akhilesh Yadav have been suspended from the party over indiscipline.
Earlier, Mulayam Singh Yadav had issued a showcause notice to Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav on Friday for releasing a parallel list of candidates for Uttar Pradesh elections.
SP Chief Mulayam Singh Yadav issues a show cause notice to UP CM Akhilesh Yadav for issuing candidate list separately. pic.twitter.com/PToNeiz1ds
— ANI UP (@ANINewsUP) December 30, 2016
The SP Chief has also issued a showcause to his cousin Ram Gopal Yadav for issuing statements against the party line in media.
SP Chief Mulayam Singh Yadav issues a show cause notice to Ram Gopal Yadav for talking against the party line in media. pic.twitter.com/eR5MWZvwvJ
— ANI UP (@ANINewsUP) December 30, 2016
Ram Gopal Yadav issues statement; calls for emergency national executive meet of SP on 1 Jan, urges members to join in party’s favour. pic.twitter.com/0wP0bXK4u7
— ANI UP (@ANINewsUP) December 30, 2016
The war between father and son started after Mulayam released the list of 325 candidates’ for UP Assembly polls ignoring Akhilesh recommendations.
Akhilesh expressed displeasure and announced parallel list of 235 candidates. Akhilesh Yadav’s list of 235 includes 187 candidates who also feature in his father’s list, and tomorrow’s meeting will be watched keenly for how many of these party leaders attend, signalling that they are with Mulayam Singh.
Addressing a press conference, Mulayam accused Ram Gopal for spoiling the career of the chief minister.
“I made Akhilesh chief minister… and now he does not even consult me,” said Mulayam.
While UP’s ruling party had seemed headed for a split for some time now, break point came after Ram Gopal Yadav, a staunch supporter of the Chief Minister, called an emergency meeting today of the party in defiance of the party chief.
This after Mulayam Singh Yadav issued a show cause notice asking his son why disciplinary action should not be taken against him for releasing a parallel list of candidates for the Uttar Pradesh elections, which includes several party leaders who are close to him and who did not make it to the official list released by his father a day before.
On Friday, Mulayam Singh has called a meeting of all candidates named by him in what is intended to emphasise that they are the party’s official nominees and he, the unchallenged boss.
The chief minister’s defiant move on Thursday was seen as a last-ditch effort to pressure his father into reconsidering the candidacy of his key aides after they failed to reach common ground at a meeting in Lucknow.
Akhilesh Yadav has in recent months engaged in a bitter power tussle with his uncle Shivpal Yadav, who is the party’s UP chief and was present by Mulayam Singh’s side when he expelled the chief minister. Mulayam Singh has consistently supported his younger brother.
The official Samajwadi Party list has on it several people backed by Shivpal and whose candidacy has been fiercely opposed by Akhilesh Yadav, including a gangster-turned-politician who faces 44 serious criminal charges.
Mulayam Singh Yadav has also repeatedly said no one will be projected as the party’s presumptive chief minister, which is unacceptable to Akhilesh Yadav’s supporters, who say the young chief minister is the party’s face.
The Samajwadi Party’s internal strife gives an added advantage to the BJP and Mayawati’s BSP in the mega battle for Uttar Pradesh, being pegged as the semi-final before national elections in 2019. Elections to UP’s 403 assembly seats are expected to be announced by the Election Commission any day now.
