SP warring factions to vote for separate prez candidates?

With the Samajwadi Party (SP) still a divided house, its two factions are likely to vote for two separate candidates in the presidential elections on July 17.

With only three days left for voting, it is turning out that more than 12 legislators (in Rajya Sabha, Lok Sabha, and UP Vidhan Sabha) are likely to vote for Ramnath Kovind, the ruling NDA’s pick for the coveted post.

The faction owes its allegiance to Mulayam Singh Yadav, Samajwadi Party founder president and a Lok Sabha member, and his brother, Shivpal Yadav, Jaswant Nagar MLA.

In Varanasi, Shivpal announced that he along with several SP MLAs and MPs will vote for Kovind. “Kovind has WHILE SHIVPAL ANNOUNCED THAT HE AND SEVERAL OTHERS WILL VOTE FOR KOVIND, FORMER CM AKHILESH YADAV AND HIS FLOCK WILL VOTE FOR KUMAR very good relation relations with Netaji for a long time. He is a good man and best candidate,” he said.

On the other hand, Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav and his flock have said that they will support the Congress-ledUnited Progressive Alliance candidate, Meira Kumar.

In fact, former Lok Sabha speaker Meira visited the SP headquarters on Friday noon. She gave a printed appeal to MLAs.

Though the division in SP may not have any bearing on the election result, it will certainly complicate the family feud further.

SP has five Lok Sabha MPs, including Mulayam. The other four are in Akhilesh Yadav camp.

The party has 19 Rajya Sabha members, including Amar Singh, who though has been expelled from the party, stays in the RS.

Amar Singh and at least four more SP RS members are in the Mulayam-Shivpal camp.

In UP legislature, SP has 43 MLAs and 67 MLCs (member of legislative council). But in the presidential election MLCs are not entitled to vote. So, Mulayam, Shivpal, or Dimple will vote, but Akhilesh can’t since he is an MLC.