In 2012, as he prepared for the > Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections , Akhilesh Yadav’s objective was to transform the battle-scarred Samajwadi Party (SP) into a tech-savvy, cosmopolitan, post-Anna Hazare organisation. He hoped this would help the SP regain the government and the lustre it had lost in 2007 thanks to the infusion of lathi-brandishing and trigger-happy partymen in its ranks.
Traversing the State on his Kranti Rath Yatra, Akhilesh Yadav would say that he wanted the SP to shed its image of being an anti-English, anti-technology gathering of parochial muscle-men. But he was equally clear that he wanted the party to retain its socialist ideals.
He said Ram Manohar Lohia, the socialist icon, was his inspiration as well as the link to the party’s socialist origins. “Lohia ji studied in English, but he understood the villages, the poor, and he spoke their language,” he said. “I am from the same tradition.”
It was a point that SP supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav would make to senior Congress leader S. Jaipal Reddy about his son when he first introduced the two of them to each other. “Touch his feet,” he told the Mysuru and Sydney-educated Akhilesh Yadav. He added: “ Jaipalji, yeh hai to mera beta par aapke jaise angrezi bolta hai ” (Jaipalji, he is my son but he speaks English like you.)
Internal crisis The SP won a clear majority in the > 2012 Assembly election and Akhilesh Yadav , the face of the campaign, became the Chief Minister of U.P. But four and a half years later, he is nowhere near accomplishing what he had set out to do. Worse, last week, much to the delight of the SP’s political rivals in this election season, the power struggle within the party, and the competing priorities of members of the Yadav clan and their friends, spilled onto the streets.
The young Chief Minister, by sacking two tainted ministers, sought to send out an unequivocal message that he would not tolerate corruption. He also tried hard to show that he was the boss, if belatedly, when he responded to his removal as SP State president by divesting his > uncle Shivpal Yadav of most of his ministerial portfolios.
In large sections of the party, and in the bureaucracy, there was a sense that finally a transition to a more wholesome brand of politics and governance was around the corner. The days of “four and a half chief ministers” are over, an official told me, adding, “Uttar Pradesh has one chief minister and his name is Akhilesh Yadav. It’s good the rift has come to the surface. Akhilesh ki image-making ho gayee hai (Akhilesh’s image has been made). Shivpal is finished.” This view was reflected on the streets of Lucknow.
Among the Yadavs, the SP’s core supporters, the junior Yadav is the new favourite. In Gokulpur village in the neighbouring district of Barabanki, Rakesh Kumar Yadav said, “The Mulayam Singh Yadav era is over. Shivpal has no support. We’ll vote SP because of Akhilesh. He should not have been removed as State president."
But by Saturday evening, that euphoria subsided when Mulayam Singh Yadav hit back. He ensured that > Shivpal Yadav got back all his portfolios barring one — the Public Works Department — and confirmed his appointment as State chief. Besides this, Gayatri Prasad Prajapati was inducted in the Cabinet despite facing charges of corruption. Mr. Prajapati, said to be a Mulayam Singh Yadav’s favourite, is an associate of his second son Prateek Yadav, born to his second wife Sadhna Gupta.
Later in the day, the ageing party supremo read the riot act to SP workers who were noisily demonstrating on the streets in solidarity with Akhilesh Yadav. He told them that Rajya Sabha MP Amar Singh, who is seen by many in the party as a catalyst for the current crisis, had stood by him in bad times, and that his decision to make Shivpal Yadav State president was final.
As a sop, Akhilesh Yadav was made chairman of the State parliamentary board, a position that will give him a say in the selection of candidates for the 2017 Assembly polls.
But as Akhilesh Yadav tries to reinvent the SP and give it a broader and more contemporary appeal, he is being thwarted at every turn by his own family. He has not only had to contend with a cohort of uncles, and his father and his favourites, for control over both the government and the party but also his step-brother Prateek Yadav’s business interests and the return to the party of Amar Singh, a man whom he had helped to oust from the SP a few years back. Shivpal Yadav, officials in Lucknow say, would regularly get Akhilesh Yadav’s decisions changed without the latter’s knowledge, by getting the new decisions cleared by Mulayam Singh Yadav.
Two generations > Shivpal Yadav and his nephew don’t just represent two generations but two world views. The uncle, adept at backroom networking and keeping the Yadav community happy, is also the quintessential organisation man, with a hold over party MLAs and old-timers. He also has the ability to make friends with people who he thinks matter, including the controversial Amar Singh and SP national general secretary Mohammad Azam Khan. And it is said that unlike Akhilesh Yadav, he never argues with Mulayam Singh Yadav.
Akhilesh Yadav’s focus has been on modernising the State while simultaneously enhancing social welfare benefits. He emphasises on minorities and the aspirations of the youth. The posters for the 2017 elections are already up, with the slogan “ Ummidon ka Pradesh ” (land of hope) emblazoned across them. He has also emerged as a pan-U.P. leader, unlike his uncle whose appeal lies mostly among the Yadavs.
There is consensus in political circles that the way the face-off between Akhilesh Yadav and Shivpal Yadav has panned out has enhanced the Chief Minister’s image. Even if Akhilesh Yadav has had a setback, he may live to fight another day. But the jury is still out on how it will impact the 2017 polls.
smita.g@thehindu.co.in
