'Paa' sinks Samajwadi Party
» Family control, Amar antics wreak havoc » The Samajwadi Party has been a formidable political force in Uttar Pradesh and was once considered to be a major national player as well. But now it is struggling to remain as one cohesive entity » Indiscipline within the party has reached uncontrollable proportions. Even small party functionaries do not care about party regulations In the words of Amar Singh, the erstwhile general secretary of Samajwadi Party, the overconfidence of its chief Mulayam Singh Yadav is to be blamed for the party's decline. One major symbol of this over-confidence was the defeat of Mulayam's daughter-in-law Dimple Yadav at the hands of former Samajwadi -turned Congressman Raj Babbar in the Ferozabad Lok Sabha by-election. The Congress strategy in Ferozabad was such that the Samajwadi party could not even guess what was coming its way. To add to its agony was the antics of the dissidents within the Samajwadi party - and the debacle was complete. Now the situation is such that even the Yadav family's stranglehold over the party has failed to do any good to its prospects, and the enigmatic Amar Singh - who nurtured the dynastic control over the party - is now making a show of distancing himself from it. In the aftermath of the Firozabad result, Mulayam Singh, his son Akhilesh Singh Yadav, brothers Prof Ram Gopal Yadav and Shivpal Singh Yadav held a closed-door meeting in Saifai. Even though there was no official announcement of what went on at the meeting, it was learnt that the four Yadavs clearly held Amar Singh to be responsible for the defeat, and decided to ask Amar for his resignation from the party. They also decided to snap ties with Kalyan Singh. Interestingly, it is learnt that it was also suggested that Akhilesh, too, be asked to resign to rid the party of the dynasty label. But the Saifai agenda worked partly. It was Kalyan Singh and son who left the Samajwadi Party, but Amar Singh flew off the tangent soon after learning about the Party's plan against him. As the bit about his getting closer to the Congress became public, Amar Singh launched a scathing attack on Mulayam, going to the extent of saying that Yadav was "behaving like Mayawati." Moreover, Amar Singh also sang praises of Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi, Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi. This series of events sent the SP leadership on backfoot and it deferred its plan of seeking resignation form Amar Singh. Within the party, however, a tricky game of pushing Amar away and bringing estranged Azam Khan closer had set off. Taking a cue from this party stand, leaders like Ambika (Yadav) Chaudhary intensified anti-Amar Singh campaign. During a programme organized in Lucknow to honour Mumbai's SP MLA Abu Azmi, who hogged the headlines for taking oath in Hindi in Maharashtra Assembly, Amar Singh said that he would like to sit beside Ambika Chaudhary. Doing so, Amar Singh gave indication to the party leadership that he knew well whatsoever was going on behind the scene. The growing control of the Yadav family has made the Samajwadi Party an arena of bickering and factionalism. Veteran Beni Prasad Verma left the party following the dominance of dynasty in the party. Azam Khan also got marginalized because of this. If sources are to be believed, sensing Mulayam Singh Yadav's affection for his son, Amar Singh used him to clip the wings of Shivpal Singh Yadav. On the other hand, Prof Ram Gopal Yadav was worried over the growing influence of Shivpal in the party. Citing the example of Congress General Secretary Rahul Gandhi, Amar Singh persuaded Mulayam Singh to launch his son Akhilesh Singh Yadav against the Gandhi scion. Following his advice, Mulayam Singh appointed Akhilesh Yadav as state president. This was the step that damaged the party most. The party has lost all elections ever since Akhilesh was anointed as state president. The state executive committee has yet to be formed even after six months of his appointment. Akhilesh Yadav, who also heads youth wings of the party, has a number of flatterers around him, sidelining the dedicated workers. Anil Rajbhar of Yuwjan Sabha, Naimul Hasan of Mulayam Youth Brigade, Anad Bhadauria of Lohiya Wahini, and Sunil Yadav of Chhatra Sabha feel safe under blessings of Akhilesh. Mulayam Singh Yadav appointed personal assistant of MLC Sarojini Agrawal as district president of Meerut. While several senior leaders, including former minister Shahid Manzoor, lodged their protest against the move, the party leadership didn't pay heed to it. It was the Congress that started the tradition of dynastic rule within the party. But the Samajwadi party perfected it. Today Samajwadi is the only party in which all important posts have been grabbed by Mulayam Singh's relatives and kin. From the Party's parliamentary leader Prof Ramgopal Yadav to Shivpal Singh Yadav, opposition leader in UP Assembly to state president Akhilesh Yadav, all are members of Mulayam's family. This is a travesty that Amar Singh, who never lagged behind in bowing down before the dynasty in the SP, seeded the controversy in the party and is now taking stand against the dynasty. All the decisions, including support to Congress on nuclear deal issue, giving over-importance to family members in elections, joining hands with Kalyan Singh, were taken by Mulayam family. Amar Singh says now that he did not have a role in any of these. But despite this bitterness, the party doesn't have Amar Singh's alternative. Indiscipline in the party has touched an all-time low. As many as 17 divisional presidents have stopped sending activity reports to the party head office after a scandal in leaking these reports for monetary gains came to light. The party leadership preferred turning a blind eye to the issue. Take the case of Girish Yadav, who was made the party candidate from Agra-Ferozabad constituency for legislative assembly elections. He forged an 'alliance' with the BSP candidate Veeru Suman by taking an amount of Rs 2 crore. Later the party had to withderaw his candidature and expelled him. Many such incidents of Samajwadi candidates taking money from BSP have been reported. Congress MP and Union Minister Jitin Prasad's cousin Jaish Prasad, who was made MLC by the SP, is now contesting legislative council election on BSP's ticket. Several SP workers participated in a programme organized to honour the Union Minister Jitin Prasad. However, no action was taken against them. SP MLA Arvind Giri, former minister Banshidhar Raj, chairman of Jila Panchayat Sitapur Ajay Bhargav, son of former minister Ram Krishna Bhargav, and Anita Giri, chairman of Sitapur zila panchayat and wife of Arvid Giri are among those who openly flouted the party diktat. In spite of leaving SP, Gauri Shankar joined the BSP and spat venom against Mulayam Singh in his bastion Etawah. Despite all this, the weak leadership didn't inform the assembly speaker about his leaving the party and he officially continued as an SP MLA. The list of leaders who left the SP is too long. Naresh Agrawal, Dhaniram Varma, Salim Sherwani, Shahid Siddiqui, Jaiprakash Rawat, former ministers, including Kunwar Virendra Singh, and Vinod Yadav Kakka left the party. Kakka, brother of late Maharaj Singh Yadav, who was close to Mulayam Singh, was denied party ticket. Yadav contested election on BSP ticket and emerged victorious. After his victory, he joined Samajwadi Party. Mulayam Singh Yadav expressed will to contest election from Bharthana and Kakka vacated the seat for him. Mulayam won election here and became opposition leader in UP Assembly. Mulayam vacated Bharthana seat after being elected to Lok Sabha from Manpuri in 2008. However, the Party overlooked Kakka's sacrifice and denied him ticket. Enraged over it, Kakka contested election from Bharthana on Congress ticket. Though he lost, the BSP pierced impregnable fort of the Samajwadi Party. Congress candidate Raj Babbar's victory is also outcome of the internal bickering and factionalism that started during 1996 general election in Lucknow and reached Farrukhabad in 2009. But where party stands today due to factionalism is to be estimated by the leadership who is solely responsible for it. (Published in By-Line National News Weekly (Hindi and English) January 16, 2009 Issue under section - This Made The News)
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