The in-house rift between the Samajwadi party members has started surfacing prior to the Lok Sabha elections, as the party decided to exclude its patron, Mulayam Singh’s name from the star campaigner’s list which it released today.
Samajwadi Party releases its list of star campaigners; Akhilesh Yadav, Ram Gopal Yadav, Azam Khan, Dimple Yadav and Jaya Bachchan included in the list; Mulayam Singh Yadav’s name not there. #LokSabhaElections2019 pic.twitter.com/QUZYpoC6ce
— ANI UP (@ANINewsUP) March 24, 2019
The list of star campaigners includes names of Akhilesh Yadav, Ram Gopal Yadav, Azam Khan, Dimple Yadav and Jaya Bachchan. However, shockingly, the founder of the party, Mulayam Singh Yadav does not find his name mentioned in the list.
Speculations are rife that Mulayam Singh’s outrage at the alliance forged between SP and BSP, by his son and party chief Akhilesh Yadav is being seen as the reason behind the party giving his name a miss from the star campaigner’s list.
Last month, while addressing the party workers at the SP headquarters in Lucknow, Mulayam Singh Yadav had expressed his disenchantment with the alliance and had also lashed out at Akhilesh Yadav, for agreeing to give BSP nearly half of the seats. He claimed that SP has given up on elections, long before the polling.
The party supremo has often expressed his disapproval regarding the decisions taken by his son in the past too. Similar disproval of his son’s decision to forge an alliance had also come during 2017 UP assembly elections. That time too, Singh had criticised Akhilesh Yadav’s decision to fight the elections along with Congress.
These internal astrictions are probably the reason why Akhilesh Yadav has decided to keep his father Mulayam Singh Yadav away from campaigning for the party in the Lok Sabha elections.
Moreover, what might have added fuel to the fire was Mulayam Singh’s open display of appreciation for PM Modi and his leadership expressed on the last day of Lok Sabha session, when Mulayam Yadan had said, “I want to thank PM Modi for taking everyone into consensus. I wish that every member of the house and especially you (PM Modi) return to being Prime Minister again”
Meanwhile, the Samajwadi Party also announced its candidates for two Lok Sabha seats in Uttar Pradesh on Sunday. The list of candidates includes Samajwadi Party leader Akhilesh Yadav and Azam Khan. Akhilesh Yadav will contest the upcoming Lok Sabha elections from Azamgarh, which is the parliamentary constituency of his father Mulayam Singh Yadav. On the other hand, senior SP leader Azam Khan will contest elections from Rampur constituency.
The SP patron, Mulayam Singh Yadav had won from two seats, namely, Mainpuri and Azamgarh in 2014 Lok Sabha polls. However, in 2019 Akhilesh Yadav will take up the Azamgarh constituency.
Earlier, the SP had released its first list of candidates for 2019 elections which mentioned that the party patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav will contest from Mainpuri which he earlier represented in 1996, 2004 and 2009. Currently, he represents Azamgarh constituency, which has been taken over by his son and party chief, Akhilesh Yadav as per the announcement made today.
