LUCKNOW : It was a sweet dichotomy. On the day Election Commission declared that chief minister Akhilesh Yadav was the national president of Samajwadi Party, rejecting the claim of his father Mulayam Singh Yadav, the former was at pains to explain that it was not a victory for him.
“It was a battle I had to fight. There is nothing like a victory over my father.” This was his first message to the cadre and the media. The intent was clear: he wanted to project himself as the good son who did it all out of his love for his father and save the party though turn of events in the past few months might have been suggesting otherwise.
Earlier, on January 1, 2017, when the party’s special national convention anointed him as the national chief and it was touted as an act of rebellion, Akhilesh said from the dais: “ My relationship with Netaji is unbreakable. He will always remain my father and me his son. I will not let anyone undermine this father-son bond.” “As he is about to embark up on campaigning, Akhilesh doesn’t want to go to the people with the image of a rebel son, instrumental in deposing his father. That’s why he is going an extra mile to give due respect to Netaji,” says a senior SP leader.
Little wonder, the first poster the party released after the EC installed Akhilesh, had Netaji all over it, indicating that Mulayam will remain the protagonist, at least on the campaign material. The message on the poster said: “Aapki cycle sadaa chalegi aapke naam se....phir Pradesh ka dil jeetenge hum milkar apne kaam se. (The bicycle will always remain yours and will move ahead in your name.
Together, we will win the people’s heart by our work.)” So, the message which is being sent is that with the patriarch’s blessings, Akhilesh’s development agenda will win the party a mandate. The SP’s first family was embroiled in an internal feud for the past four months with Akhilesh locking horns with uncle Shivpal Yadav mainly for control over the party. The bitterness in the ties increased to such a level that the party reached on the brink of a vertical split—one faction led by Akhilesh and other by Shivpal with Mulayam siding with his brother. Finally, it turned into a fight for identity and party symbol reaching the EC, which decided it in Akhilesh’s favour.
Throughout this period, while Mulayam berated his CM son several times, going to the extent of publicly saying that he made a mistake by making him the CM and accusing him of breaking the party at the instance of Ram Gopal Yadav, Akhilesh never retorted. He refrained from making any comment about Mulayam and if at all he had to make, it was full of courteous references. Now, that he has got the command, he is stooping to conquer his father’s heart.