At Samajwadi Party meeting, Shivpal Yadav snatching mic from nephew Akhilesh Yadav
Highlights
- The ongoing feud among the Yadavs has hit an unprecedented low
- Shivpal Yadav says nephew Akhilesh had confessed he was launching a party
- UP Chief Minister, however, said he has been wronged by his uncle.
A day after he was sacked - for the second time - as a minister, Shivpal Yadav's attack on Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav was unmitigated. At a meeting of the Samajwadi Party today, Shivpal, 61, described his 43-year-old nephew as a liar, and accused him of privately threatening to launch his own party.
Shivpal, overcome with rage, also grabbed the microphone from Akhilesh while he was in the midst of accounting how he has been wronged by his uncle along with Amar Singh, a close aide of his father.
With that, the feud among the Yadavs hit an unprecedented low, placing their party within striking distance of a split as Uttar Pradesh starts preparing to vote. Mulayam Singh Yadav, who is the Chief Minister's father and head of the Samajwadi Party, left the meeting, visibly upset.
It was Akhilesh professing that he has no plans of a spin-off party that enraged uncle Shivpal. After seizing the mic, he said that in private, Akhilesh had confessed that he was ready to launch a start-up, taking with him nearly 100 of the Samajwadi Party's 220 legislators who have reportedly expressed their preference for him over his father, Mulayam Singh.
Before he was cut off by Shivpal, Akhilesh said that "it's hard to imagine what it takes to keep things running" while being constantly plotted against. He also said that his only interest is to serve the people, making it clear that he wants the party to stick to its plan of promoting him as the presumptive Chief Minister.
Shivpal, on the other hand, said his own considerable effort towards consolidating the support of Muslims (who form about 18% of the state) and the Samajwadi cadre are overlooked. "Even when I was not invited to the Chief Minister's residence for meetings, I would still show up," he offered as an example of his commitment as a team player.
For much of his tenure, Akhilesh accepted the decisions which were thrust upon him by his father and shaped heavily by Shivpal. Ministers and top bureaucrats were appointed on their instructions. But with the election now just months away, Akhilesh, confronting accusations of an under-performing administration (often pointed out helpfully by his father), and a list of headline-making crimes including gang-rapes, wanted to carefully control his image. So he resolutely refused an affiliation with a former gangster's party that was pitched by Shivpal to engender Muslim support. He also said he wanted more authority in deciding who the party would offer as candidates. And he removed Shivpal as a minister last month.
On all points of objection, he was over-ruled. Mulayam reinstated Shivpal as a minister, the ex-gangster has been accepted as a partner, and Shivpal replaced Akhilesh as the party's head in Uttar Pradesh, allowing him the big say in candidates.
After the meeting this morning ended in tatters, Mulayam Singh and Akhilesh met privately. It's not yet known if they have managed the terms of a do-over.