NEW DELHI: Having established his dominance over the Samajwadi fiefdom in Uttar Pradesh, Mulayam Singh Yadav sought to put a cap on the all-consuming, debilitating family feud with this pithy pronouncement. Also, the Samajwadi Party supremo ruled out the possibility of him replacing Akhilesh as the chief minister just a few months away from the elections.
“You have to ask him (Akhilesh Yadav) why he made them ministers and why he sacked them,’’ Mulayam said when asked about the possibility of reinstating the sacked ministers. As an attempt at humour, he said, “I’ll not make any single controversial statement…whatever you may ask (try to get out of me).’’
If Akhilesh maintained suspense by not uttering a word on Tuesday, Mulayam too stuck to his guns as far as his controversial friend and Rajya Sabha member Amar Singh’s status in the party goes. Despite Akhilesh’s disapproval of Singh’s role in the family feud, Mulayam told the media at his press conference, “Why drag him in all this…?’’
Whose role Netaji was disapproving of was clear when he said, “My family and party are united. All workers are united. There are some ‘conspirators, who do not have any mass base.’’ It was on Monday that Mulayam had hailed his favourite brother Shivpal as “the mass leader’’ of the party and Prof Ram Gopal Yadav-always a Rajya Sabha member-is known as the “intellectual’’. So, Mulayam’s allusion was obvious.
Meanwhile, Amar Singh broke his silence in Kolkata in praise of Rahul Gandhi, as “the most misunderstood man of Indian politics’’ whose “depth of knowledge and understanding’’ and “lack of arrogance’’ has impressed him. If Akhilesh Yadav was the tangential reference, it was not missed.
As for Ram Gopal Yadav, he reiterated on Tuesday that Samajwadi Party can win elections only under the leadership of Akhilesh. In other words, Mulayam was past his sell-by date. The Yadavs of Uttar Pradesh thus hardly looked like the great Indian undivided family.