NEW DELHI: It was a battle of wits between the father and a son who had learnt well on the job. And the son won as he played his cards astutely, quietly and without allowing the facade of respect to slip even once during the long drawn battle over weeks.
It started in the build up to the Assembly elections, when Amar Singh who has now been given Z catetory security by the central government, managed to convince Mulayam Singh that it was time he took over the reins of the party.And asserted his role in ensuring his people---including some criminals---were given tickets, and the Chief Minister who was becoming increasingly popular cut to size. In this Amar Singh was supported by Shivpal Yadav, whose relations with Akhilesh had deteriorated sharply over the years.
Mulayam Singh convinced that he needed to protect his own position in the party, struck out. And as the party president moved Akhilesh Yadav and Ram Gopal Yadav out of party posts, reposing all confidence publicly in Shivpal Yadav. It was also made clear by the party supreme to his loyalists, that after the elections he would remove his son from the Chief Ministers post. In fact, Mulayam Singh had been openly badmouthing Akhilesh even to Opposition leaders, insisting that the CM was unable to control the bureaucracy, had little experience, and no idea of the party organisation.
Akhilesh Yadav, sources said, was upset when his father brought this criticims into the open and reposed more trust in his brother Shivpal than his son. The CM, sources said, wanted to move out at that stage and start his own organisation if need be but was advised not to do so. It was pointed out that this would be playing into Mulayam Singh’s hand who would then own the party and sideline him as the ‘disloyal’ son who left. The struggle, Akhilesh and his advisors then decided, should be for control of the Samajwadi party.
The CM hunkered down, went silent but refused to budge from his insistence that criminals and the corrupt should not find a place in the candidates list. He withstood the organisational storm unleashed by Mulayam Singh although his supporters admit that it was very very difficult. As Mulayam claimed control over the party, Akhilesh came out with a counter list of support of the majority of MLA’s and MPs as well. Spontaneous crowds came out in his support, and it became apparent to even Mulayam Singh who barely travels in the state any more that over the five years his son had grown from strength to strength.
After a hesitant start Akhilesh Yadav had focused on infrastructure and development across UP with the roads network visible testimony to this. This also gave him instant popularity cutting across all castes, in what has been a development starved state under successive governments. This, unrecognised by Mulayam Singh, had brought his son into the limelight to a point where the support compelled the legislators to ditch the Samajwadi supremo for his son.
Interestingly, the young CM made it very clear to his supporters that not a word against his father would be tolerated. And this deferential respect added to his stature, and prevented what could have become a vilification campaign had some of Mulayam Singh’s advisors had their way.
The father who had started the battle, convinced that he would be able to drive his son out of the organisation, has now lost the party he founded. The support has shifted almost entirely to Akhilesh Yadav who has been anointed the new leader even by the Election Commission that has given him the symbol for the elections.
A muted Mulayam Singh has whittled down his list of 400 candidates to just 38 essentials, but his supporters quielty continue to maintain that dissidence will grow. And are happy that an influential Kurmi leader Beni Prasad Verma who has had an off-on relationship with Mulayam Singh is now opposing the CM openly. And that Ambika Chaudhry, a sitting MLA who was denied a ticket, has turned dissident and joined the BSP.
Akhilesh Yadav’s popularity in the state is soaring despite all this. And currently there is little that Mulayam Singh can do to queer the pitch. The son has learnt political craftiness from the father, but at this stage has not allowed it to be corroded with a cynical exploitation of the poor. He has worked to reach to all castes and classes, and is not associated with any one community more than the other. In this--along with the ticket of honesty---lies his strength that will be crucial in the forthcoming polls.