NEW DELHI: What is being seen a sign of Samajwadi Party supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav’s inability to take a hard stand is his declaration on Tuesday that “there’s no rift in the party and the family’’ and that he is “not willing to remove Akhilesh Yadav” from the Uttar Pradesh chief minister position.
But the sacking of loyalists of each other’s camp has aggravated the crisis. The optics got no better with Shivpal clearing out of his official residence earlier in the day. Shivpal, however, seemed to be enjoying Mulayam’s backing despite some of his unprecedented and controversial moves, like sacking a minister from the party without consulting the chief minister or calling Akhilesh names at the party meeting.
Sources close to Akhilesh claimed the chief minister “has refused to be distracted” by the petty “street-level politics” of his rival camp. That he feels that the people of the state have “seen his development work’’ and “appreciates it’’.
Akhilesh’s camp is convinced that it’s “only the old guard which is feeling rattled” by his determination to clean up the stables “whatever it may take’’.
As the war in the ruling Samajwadi Party continued, one more leader considered close to the chief minister was expelled from the party. Shivpal, who is the state chief of the party, expelled Tejnarain Pandey alias Pawan Pandey for six years for “indiscipline”.
Shivpal also wrote to the chief minister requesting that he be sacked from the ministry. Pandey is a junior minister in the Akhilesh government. Pandey had allegedly clashed with and beaten up SP MLC Ashu Malik, whom Akhilesh had accused of planting stories in the media against him. Pandey termed the charges levelled against him as false and part of a conspiracy.
“I might have been expelled from the party through a piece of paper but SP chief Mulayam Singh Yadav and Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav will always remain in my heart...I have no regrets over the expulsion,” he told reporters. “Ashu Malik has cited in the police complaint that he was beaten up outside the CM’s residence. CCTV cameras are installed all over the place and media was also present there. If the footage is checked the reality will come to light,” he added.
“Chief minister Akhilesh Yadav had called me to clarify things related to a news article published in an English daily wherein Akhilesh was referred to as Aurangzeb and Mulayam Singh as Shahjahan,” Malik had said. “When I was at the CM’s residence, Pandey slapped me twice,” he had said. (With PTI inputs)