Poll panel caught in tussle for ‘cycle’

Election Commission to ask SP’s warring factions to produce evidence to support their claim

Samajwadi Party workers wait outside Mulayam Singh’s residence in Lucknow on Tuesday.

A day after Mulayam Singh staked claim to the Samajwadi Party symbol “bicycle,” the Akhilesh Yadav camp representative Ramgopal Yadav met Election Commissioners and maintained that a majority of party members supported him.

The Election Commission later received a written representation on the Akhilesh camp’s claim, confirming that it was contesting his father’s assertions.

Accompanied by loyalists

Mr. Yadav, who was accompanied by Akhilesh loyalists Naresh Agarwal and Kiranmoy Nanda, submitted before the Commission on Tuesday that the real Samajwadi Party was the one of which Akhilesh had been elected national president.

He later told mediapersons that 90 per cent of the people supported the Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister.

Both the groups have staked claim to the symbol and therefore, the Commission will now ask them to produce documentary evidence to prove their stand. It will also examine the party’s constitution to determine whether procedures were followed.

However, the final test will be the numbers in the organisational and legislative structures.

In the Sadiq Ali case, the Supreme Court has held that the test of majority applied by the Commission to settle a dispute of this nature is valid and relevant.

Defying his father’s directions, Akhilesh had issued a separate list of candidates for the coming Assembly elections. The party supremo then expelled him and his supporters, including Mr. Ramgopal Yadav. The rival group then called for a national council meeting and declared Akhilesh as the party’s national president, virtually staging a coup.

Signatures taken

As claimed by the Akhilesh group, 220 of the 229 legislators have supported him. It is learnt that their signatures have also been taken to be produced before the Commission.

As the EC is expected to announce the poll schedule for Uttar Pradesh and four other States in a couple of days, it may not have enough time to decide the dispute. Thus, in all likelihood, the Samajwadi Party symbol will be frozen till the issue is settled.

This move would put the Mulayam and Akhilesh factions on an equal footing, said an official quoting a similar case in 2011 when two factions of the Uttarakhand Kranti Dal made representations staking claim to the party symbol “chair.”

The EC instead approved two new symbols and party names for the rival groups.