Akhilesh emerges stronger as SP wobbles
Family feud may have hit the party but CM’s rising popularity among young workers stuns senior leaders
The Samajwadi Party may have lost ground in the bitter battle being played out in Uttar Pradesh for the past two months but, interestingly, it is chief minister Akhilesh Yadav who has gained tremendous support and popularity.
It is young party workers growing support to the CM that has left the entire senior leadership almost stunned and has reportedly forced SP president Mulayam Singh Yadav to give up the idea of a change of leadership in the government.
For the first time, the two-day drama at the SP office during which thousands of youths rooted for Akhilesh Yadav and hooted out the senior leaders showed that Akhilesh Yadav has managed to establish himself as a youth icon in the state politics.
The SP never witnessed the kind of scenes that it saw on Monday when Mulayam Singh Yadav and Shivpal Yadav addressed the party leaders. There was constant slogan shouting in favour of Akhilesh and Mulayam Singh Yadav, more than once, was forced to ask the crowds to keep quiet but to no avail.
State president Shivpal Yadav was not only interrupted many times during his speech — in which he criticised the CM — but also faced uneasy questions from the audience. When he said he had widely toured the state, a youth leader Atul Pradhan shouted, “You went around in a helicopter” which forced Shivpal Yadav to ask “Helicopter tumhare baap ka tha kya?”
The misbehaviour of the senior party leaders became pronounced after the CM gave an “emotional” speech.
“It was a son who was addressing a father and not a CM. Akhilesh endeared himself to us when he turned emotional and even broke down during his speech. He asked his father to punish him if he had done any wrong but, later, Mulayam and Shivpal humiliated and insulted him, forgetting that he is also the