NEW DELHI: Samajwadi Party leader Ram Gopal Yadav again approached the election commission on Friday as he said that Akhilesh Yadav, the newly declared president of the party, enjoys support of nearly 212 out of the party's 229 MLAs
Asserting claim over the cycle symbol, Yadav said that the faction of the party led by UP chief minister Akhilesh Yadav was the real Samajwadi Party.
"The party under leadership of Akhilesh Yadav is the real Samajwadi party, and should be seen so. Cycle symbol must be allotted to us," Ram Gopal said on Friday. He was in Delhi on Friday to submit documents to the poll panel.
"We will submit affidavit of MLAs, MLCs, MPs between 3-4pm today. Out of 229 MLAs, 212 signed affidavit. 56 out of 68 MLCs, 15 out of 24 MPs have signed the affidavit. We will submit to EC."
Ram Gopal Yadav, cousin of Mulayam Singh Yadav has been standing firm behind Akhilesh. He has been considered as one of key decision makers of the party.
In the 404-member Uttar Pradesh Assembly, SP has 229 MLAs. The EC asked both factions to show a strength of the MLAs, MPs and MLCs supporting them through signed affidavits by January 9.
Earlier, on Thursday, Mulayam Singh Yadav was in Delhi to furnish details to the EC as to why his faction should retain the 'cycle' symbol.
Officials said that the poll panel will look into the facts and documents submitted by both the sides and any decision can be taken only after that. “It may freeze the original symbol and issue new symbols to both the factions,” said an official.