MSY snubs son, releases poll list
Eyebrows raised as Mulayam praises Modi
The raging ticket war in the Samajwadi Party came out into the open on Wednesday when Mulayam Singh Yadav announced the candidates for 325 of the 403 Assembly seats in UP, ignoring his son Akhilesh Yadav’s objections to certain “tainted” names. Worse, he refused to endorse his son as the party’s chief ministerial candidate for elections likely to be held early next year.
The list, released while Mr Akhilesh Yadav was away on election tour, doesn’t merely include candidates the CM was opposed to, but it also ignores several names favoured by him and submitted to his father on Sunday. While 176 sitting MLAs found favour with the veteran leader, as many as 53 sitting legislators have been dropped.
At a hurriedly called press conference in Lucknow, SP president Mulayam Singh Yadav, flanked by state party chief and his brother Shivpal Yadav, also refused to declare Mr Akhilesh Yadav as the party’s chief ministerial candidate, saying, “SP has no tradition of projecting anyone as its chief ministerial candidate. Some parties do it, and in the process bite the dust. In SP, the legislators elect their leader.” Akhikesh, he said, was “free to contest from any seat.”
Mr Akhilesh Yadav’s name did not figure in the list, but Mr Mulayam Singh Yadav announced that Mr Shivpal Yadav would contest from Jaswant Nagar.
What raised eyebrows and surprised many was Mr Mulayam Singh Yadav’s sudden praise of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. “PM bahut kasht jhelkar yahan tak aye hain Sadharan parivar se hain
woh (PM has struggled a lot to come to this position. He’s from an ordinary family).”
He, however, criticised demonetisation, and accused the BJP of not delivering on its poll promises.