LUCKNOW: Worried at violence by overzealous party workers, the Samajwadi Party (SP) has issued strict instructions to them to "mend their ways" or face "exit from the party".
The terse message has been given to party workers by state president Akhilesh Yadav, who, sources said, was particularly miffed at the violence that marred the celebrations of the party's return to power after five years.
A statement was also issued on behalf of the junior Yadav that the party would not tolerate any sort of hooliganism. State party spokesperson Rajendra Chowdhary told IANS that the party leadership had made it obvious long ago that any form of hooliganism would not be tolerated.
Sources in the party said that Tuesday night's celebratory fire in Sambhal which left a 13-year-old boy dead, violence in Firozabad where SP workers pelted stones at policemen and left a person seriously injured (he died Wednesday of a gun shot wound) and the incident in Jhansi where protesting partymen held a group of local journalists hostage, had made SP supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav sit back and ask his son to rein in the party workers.
Irate SP workers had pelted stones and indulged in violence and blocked National Highway No.2 Tuesday night and the blockade was only lifted after the "express wish" of the Yadav duo was communicated to the mob.
Akhilesh, meanwhile, has reiterated that the party was committed to a good law and order situation in the state and would not allow anyone, not even the party workers of SP, to take law in their hands.
The image of the SP took a beating in another incident where celebratory firing by SP workers in Sambhal area of the Bheem nagar area killed a 13-year-old.
Earlier in the day, the outgoing chief minister, Mayawati had taken a dig at the killing of two people within 24 hours and had said she was sad that a party which protected and promoted hooligans had been voted to power. "People will soon remember the good law and order under my regime and will repent their decision to vote for SP," she told reporters at a press conference convened at her party office.