MULAYAM QUESTIONS ALLIANCE
DISCORDANT NOTE Says some in ‘party hell-bent on destroying it’, BJP much ahead of SP in election campaign
LUCKNOW: Samajwadi Party patron Mulayam Singh on Thursday questioned his son and party chief Akhilesh Yadav’s alliance with Mayawati’s BSP. He said the alliance means Akhilesh would have to accommodate all the SP’S candidates in half the seats in the state.
LUCKNOW: Samajwadi Party (SP) patron Mulayam Singh Yadav on Thursday questioned his son and party chief Akhilesh Yadav’s alliance with Mayawati’s Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections, in a a potential embarrassment to the two parties.
The alliance means Akhilkesh Yadav would have to accommodate all the SP’S candidates in half the seats UP fills in Lok Sabha, the party patriarch said, commenting that those in the party are “hell-bent on destroying it”.
Mulayam also said the ruling BJP was much ahead of the SP in the election campaign in India’s largest state, which sends 80 members to the Lok Sabha.
In January, the SP and BSP said they would contest 39 seats each and not field any candidates in Amethi and Raebareli, represented by Congress president Rahul Gandhi and UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi respectively.
On Thursday, the SP said it will contest 37 seats and BSP will fight 38 in the parliamentary elections, releasing a list of candidates and the seats they have been allotted. The Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD), the third partner in the alliance, is likely to contest three seats.
“Look now he [Akhilesh] has done gathbandan (alliance) with Mayawati. The SP will contest in half of the seats,” Mulayan Singh said earlier in the day at the party headquarters after Akhilesh’s press conference with the Patidar leader Hardik Patel. After the press conference, Akhilesh came out and sat on the office lawns for a few minutes, out of earshot of his father. He left well before his father started speaking. “The BJP is ahead in campaign... I will be happy if tickets are given to winnable candidates,” Mulayam said as his son rose and left.
When the pact with BSP was sealed, Mulayam had described Akhilesh as wise for teaming up with Mayawati’s party although the 2017 tie-up with Congress in the UP assembly elections was wrong. The alliance is relying on its support base of Dalits , OBCS and minorities to raise its strength in Lok Sabha. SP won five seats in 2014 and BSP none.
On Thursday, he expressed his displeasure at Akhilesh for leaving the party office without listening to him. “Now, I have been made sanrakshak (patron). Can’t do anything much,” said the 79-year-old party SP patriarch, adding that when he was the party president, the SP contested all 80 Lok Sabha seats and won 39 in the 2004 Lok Sabha polls.
Taking a dig at the fact that Akhilesh has not finalised the SP’S candidates list, Mulayam said when he was the party president, he had distributed election tickets 14 months before the 2012 UP assembly polls. “We then formed the government,” he said. “Those in the party are hell-bent on destroying it.”
“These days what he (Mulayam) says and to which side he is are not clear. He is confused and making SP cadre confused. Such a thing will harm SP and benefit BJP,” said political analyst SK Dwivedi.