Lucknow: The rift in Uttar Pradesh's ruling Samajwadi Party widened further on Friday with Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav skipping a crucial meeting called by state party chief Shivpal Yadav to strategise for the Assembly polls due early next year where the latter declared him the party's chief ministerial face.
Though Shivpal, the younger brother of SP supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav, had met his nephew Akhilesh to personally invite him to a meeting of SP district and city units presidents, the Chief Minister kept away, indicating all was not well in the party despite repeated protestations by its senior leaders to the contrary.
Sources present at the meeting said Shivpal, apparently seeking to bury the hatchet, made it clear that Akhilesh will be Samajwadi Party's chief ministerial candidate, days after Mulayam virtually left the field open by saying the newly elected legislators will choose their leader, something which did not go down well with the camp followers of the incumbent CM.
"Akhilesh Yadav will be the next CM, if party is voted to power. He will be our CM candidate," Shivpal said, according to a leader present at the meeting where delegates were not allowed to carry mobile phones.
Shivpal asked them to gear up for elections and also to ensure that the party's silver jubilee celebrations on November 5 in the state capital was a grand show.
"You all should start preparations for November 5 event and make it a big success," Shivpal told them.
Akhilesh, with whom Shivpal is engaged in a running feud over the last few months, has already made it clear in a letter to the Samajwadi Party boss and his father Mulayam that he would be proceeding on his 'rath yatra' on November 3 to highlight the development work done by his government, in a clear indication that he would skip that event too.
With the tense stand-off between Akhilesh and Shivpal continuing, speculations about a possible split are rife with some even suggesting a new party named National Samajwadi Party or Pragatisheel Samajwadi party with motorcycle as its symbol could be formed by the Chief Minister ahead of the assembly elections.
Akhilesh Yadav wants to have a major say in ticket distribution, but Shivpal a leader with grassroots support, is unwilling to cede any ground to his nephew.
The state party chief recently announced the first list of candidates, which included the name of Amanmani Tripathi, an accused in the murder of his wife and son of mafia don-turned-politician Amarmani Tripathi, in jail for his alleged involvement in the murder of poetess Madhumita Shukla, without even consulting Akhilesh.
The sabre rattling in the Samajwadi Party's first family began when Akhilesh thwarted a merger of gangster-turned-politician Mukhtar Ansari's Qaumi Ekta Dal (QED) with the state's ruling party despite an announcement made in this regard by Shivpal, who had shepherded the move.
Shivpal then threatened to quit from SP citing alleged lawlessness and rise in land grab cases in the state. After this, Mulayam had attacked Akhilesh and said ministers in his government were corrupt and a burden on the state.
The bitterness deepened over time and, in a surprise action, Mulayam removed Akhilesh as SP's Uttar Pradesh unit chief last month and replaced him with Shivpal.
An angry Akhilesh, in swift retaliatory action, divested Shivpal of all important portfolios, only to return them after a Mulayam-brokered truce. Before the truce was declared, Shivpal resigned from the government and all party posts.
Supporters of Akhilesh and Shivpal held demonstrations to show there strength, compelling Mulayam to intervene and declare an end to hostilities between his brother and son.
But that did not put an end to the turf war within the SP's first family as Shivpal sacked several youth leaders considered close to the Chief Minister, including some MLCs.
In another setback to Akhilesh, Shivpal went on to declare that the merger with Ansari's QED stood despite earlier having been declared null and void.
Akhilesh, who has a clean image, sacked two important ministers--Gayatri Prasad Prajapati and Rajkishore Singh--facing graft charges. Both were considered close to Mulayam and Prajapati has since been reinducted into the government.
The turf war has deeply divided the family, with Mulayam appearing to back Shivpal and his cousin and influential SP general secretary Ram Gopal Yadav plumping for Akhilesh.
Ram Gopal, a Rajya Sabha member and SP ideologue, has even written to Mulayam seeking his intervention to take the youth leaders back into the party fold and ensure Akhilesh has a decisive say in ticket distribution.
