While voters in Uttar Pradesh are all too familiar with pre-election drama, discontentment and defections every five years, what is happening within the Samajwadi Party now is unprecedented. Trouble has been brewing up within this party for quite sometime now with regular tiffs between party patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav and his son Akhilesh Yadav. Not for nothing does Akhilesh address his father as ‘Netaji’; the schism between the father and son had been there all along; it has only reached its zenith now and some headway is likely.
The Samajwadi Party was formed as a breakaway faction of the Janata Dal in 1992. The party describes itself as of democratic-socialist orientation. It has emerged as an important regional heavyweight over the years and thrice formed government in the state of Uttar Pradesh. Cut to 2016, this ruling party appears to be in tatters, contrary to the united face it is expected to put up ahead of the 2017 Assembly elections in the state. In fact, the party is staring at a possible split now more so than ever with Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav and his father, party supremo Mulayam Singh, engaging in an open face-off and firing each other’s loyalists Shivpal Yadav and Ramgopal Yadav.
It is obviously a conflict of generations and while it may severely affect the party’s chances in the short run, it may have wide-ranging ramifications in the long run. It holds the possibility of changing the course of the party, the state and even national politics. Akhilesh Yadav is symbolic of the new aspirations of a young India at large and the young voters of UP in particular. They are not ready to be bogged down by politics of caste and communalism. All they want is development, progress and employment.
This may be something incomprehensible and a little difficult to digest for the Samajwadi Party’s veterans fed on the belief that politics is all about winning votes through caste, religion and muscle-power calculus. Added to this might be the feeling of insecurity due to Akhilesh’s growing individual popularity because of his clean image, modern outlook and willingness to cleanse the party of criminal elements. Only this can explain the curiously suicidal propensity of the father-uncle duo at the helm of Samajwadi Party to harm thew party’s chances in the upcoming elections. No really. What benefit Mulayam Singh Yadav is expecting his party to get by marginalising and even humiliating its only winning prospect which Akhilesh is? It is but the BJP and the BSP, the Samajwadi Party’s two main adversaries in UP polls 2017 who stand to benefit immensely from this.
It is pertinent to sideline the UP elections 2017 for a moment and ponder on the question why Mulayam is not willing to pass the baton to his son. After all, Akhilesh has everything which Rahul Gandhi (no offence to the latter) does not. Akhilesh promises to give Samajwadi Party what the Congress is currently hankering for: a young and promising leadership. Is Mulayam afraid of losing influence? If that is so, then someone please tell him he’s fighting a losing battle. The young electorate, the composition of which is increasing in size, is really not interested in sectarian politics.
Akhilesh could very well go his own way and form a new party but I would rather not. The party is as much his as his father’s. This man has it in him. Irrespective of who wins or who loses this elections, my bet is on this man. This futuristic leader gives Uttar Pradesh the hope of rising above caste and religion politics and he has everything going for him in the long run.
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