Lucknow: Barely two months after it called off the merger, Samajwadi Party on Tuesday appeared all set to embrace gangster-turned-politician Mukhtar Ansari's Quami Ekta Dal (QED) ahead of 2017 UP Assembly polls amid widening fault lines in the ruling party in Uttar Pradesh. "Netaji (Mulayam Singh Yadav) has agreed to QED's merger with SP. A formal announcement regarding this can be expected soon," said a senior party leader privy to the development.
Talk of QED's merger with SP in the near future gained momentum since yesterday after the SP supremo backed his brother and cabinet minister Shivpal Yadav at a flag hoisting function on the occasion of Independence Day.
A bitter feud within the Yadav family on the issue of the controversial merger came to light for the first time when Shivpal announced the merger in June 21. However, a meeting of SP parliamentary board abruptly called off the merger on June 25 with Mulayam giving in to pressure from his son and Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav who wanted the SP to keep its distance from Mukhtar, who is in jail facing serious criminal cases.
Shivpal had announced the merger when Akhilesh, who is the state party chief, was away from the state capital reflecting that top functionaries in the party were not on the same page.
QED, which has its area of influence in eastern parts of Uttar Pradesh, has two MLAs -- mafia don Mukhtar and his brother Sigbatullaha Ansari. Their brother Afzal is the party president.
Shivpal has in the recent times threatened to resign and has made veiled criticism of the Uttar Pradesh government. Mulayam, while coming out in support of Shivpal, yesterday said if he left the Samajwadi Party, it will get divided into factions.
According to party insiders, Mulayam has given permission to Shivpal to facilitate the merger. Mulayam said, "A conspiracy was being hatched against Shivpal ... He is working very hard. A few people are against him. If he (Shivpal) quits, then the situation in the party will become bad. Half of the people will go with him."
Shivpal later said in a statement that SP would not allow people to be harassed even if it required him to resign. They said Shivpal was miffed after the recent cancellation of merger with QED, which claimed to have a hold over Muslim vote bank in at least 18 seats of eastern UP where JD(U) president and Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar were trying to test the political waters.
QED was founded in 2010 by Mukhtar Ansari, along with his brothers Afzal Ansari, who is now its president, and Sigbatullaha Ansari.
After the merger, SP had witnessed a high-voltage drama with senior party leader and Secondary Education Minister Balram Yadav being sacked by Akhilesh for helping in the merger.
But, the SP parliamentary board -- the party's highest policy making body -- while calling off the merger also decided to reinduct Balram. "Mukhtar Ansari will not be welcome in the party. We don't want such people in the party," the chief minister had said against QED hours after the controversial amalgamation was announced.
Akhilesh had expressed strong displeasure over the merger ahead of next year's Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls saying, "If party workers perform their responsibilities, then there will be no need of another party."
Ansari was lodged in Agra jail in connection with killing of BJP legislator Krishnanand Rai in 2005.
The chief minister had taken a similar tough stand on the inclusion of mafia-turned-politician DP Yadav before the 2012 Assembly elections.
Meanwhile, Shivpal said in Mainpuri, the native place of the Yadav family, that he has apprised Mulayam of everything. "I have apprised Netaji of everything," he told reporters when asked whether he was angry with nephew Akhilesh or any minister.
To another query, he said land grabbing was going on from Agra to Mainpuri and a model revenue code has been implemented to stop it.
Shivpal said it was the duty of SP workers to check wrongdoings, prevent incidents of injustice and harassment and apprise the government of such misdeeds.
He said action should be taken against those involved in such incidents, but it should be kept in mind in that innocent people were not harassed. "There should be no corruption, whether it's at police station or tehsil," he said.
The minister said schemes launched by the government should reach directly to the people.
Recently, even Mulayam had given a tongue lashing to SP lawmakers asking them to refrain from land grabbing and making easy money and instead concentrate on development work if they wanted to retain power in the state.
The ruling party has been witnessing differences every now and then and the rift came to the fore at the birthday party of Mulayam's brother Ram Gopal Yadav, with another brother Shivpal displaying disinterest apparently because of his unhappiness over the fiasco involving merger of QED with SP.
Shivpal arrived late at the venue of the party, so much that the birthday cake had already been cut in the presence of Mulayam, Akhilesh and other key leaders.
Shivpal had arrived with Amar Singh and instead of going to the dais, he sat among the invitees at the birthday party. Later, on prodding by leaders, he went to the dais but chose to occupy a chair in the back row and even avoided going up to Ramgopal to wish him on his birthday.
So much so, Shivpal was conspicuous by his absence at the swearing-in ceremony of ministers at Raj Bhawan when Balram was reinducted.
