Akhilesh to skip SP bash, launch campaign

In a letter to Mulayam, Chief Minister says election campaign cannot be delayed any longer

Akhilesh Yadav

Pushed to the wall, a defiant Akhilesh Yadav, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister, on Wednesday announced he would launch the Samajwadi Party’s campaign for the 2017 elections on his own. On November 3, the Yadav scion will embark on a Samajwadi Vikas Rath Yatra, which would seek votes on his development works and welfare schemes. He made the decision known in a letter to his father and party supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav.

This has raised questions if the CM would give a miss to the SP’s silver jubilee celebrations scheduled for November 5. There was no confirmation on this.

Meanwhile, SP state president Shivpal Yadav appointed corruption-tainted minister Gayatri Prasad Prajapati, whom Mr. Akhilesh had sacked but who was later reinstated, as the coordinator of the anniversary event which would be held at the sprawling Janeshwar Mishra Park here. In his letter, the younger Yadav reasoned that the party could not wait any longer to start its campaign if it wanted to come to power.

“All political parties have started their election campaigns,” the Chief Minister pointed out.

Hints at infighting

Referring to the delay in the party’s rath yatra, he also mentioned how it was initially planned on October 3 but did not work out due to “certain reasons.” He was hinting at the infighting within the Yadav clan and party. The “detailed programme of the yatra would be given to party district heads and workers from time to time,” Mr. Yadav said in the letter, which was also marked to his uncles Shivpal Yadav and Ramgopal Yadav, who is Rajya Sabha MP and party general secretary.

Interestingly the letter was released to the media through Rajendra Chaudhary, Cabinet Minister and Akhilesh loyalist, who was recently sacked as party spokesperson after Mr. Shivpal Yadav took over as its State president.

Boycott threat

Many Akhilesh loyalists, including expelled youth organisation chiefs and a few MLCs, have vowed to boycott the party’s 25th foundation day programme in protest against the expulsion of many of their colleagues on “false complaints” by Mr. Shivpal Yadav. In an indication of a deep split within the cadre, leaders close to Mr. Akhilesh Yadav have started putting up hoardings without the image of either Mr. Mulayam Singh or Mr. Shivpal Yadav.

Also, Akhilesh loyalists who were expelled are these days operating not out of the party headquarters but from the office of the Janeshwar Mishra Trust, which the CM inaugurated earlier this month.

Mr. Mulayam Singh last week provided a new shock to his son by refusing to endorse his name as the chief ministerial candidate.

He deputed his aide and party vice-president, Kironmoy Nanda, to put to rest the controversy on Monday by clarifying that Mr. Akhilesh Yadav would indeed be the party’s face in the elections.