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Samajwadi Party family feud: Here’s a timeline of happenings in the Uttar Pradesh pari-‘WAR’
Here's a timeline of everything that has happened in the Uttar Pradesh edition of the Samajwadi Party Mahabharata.
Uttar Pradesh, October 23: They say that stress can bring out the best in people. However, the stress of the Uttar Pradesh assembly elections of 2017, seems to have brought out the worst in the Samajwadi Party. A more than a month long family feud has been happening in the Samajwadi party. The key players in the feud are Samajwadi party supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav’s son Akhilesh Yadav and brother Shivpal Singh Yadav.
What is truly interesting is that unlike infightings in other political party’s, the Samajwadi party feud is only among the blood relatives of Mulayam Singh Yadav. The Samajwadi party is the largest party with a single family participation in India. There is a total of 11 members of Mulayam Singh Yadav’s clan who hold key positions in the Samajwadi party. With so many people from one family, a feud was long in the making. Though it is unknown which members represent the ‘Kauravas’ and which members the ‘Pandavas’, the war has begun. Here’s a timeline of everything that has happened in the Uttar Pradesh edition of the Samajwadi Party Mahabharata:
August 15: Qaumi Ekta Dal(QED) gets ready to merge with Samajwadi Party again. Akhilesh Yadav’s Samajwadi Party who had earlier called off its merger with gangster-turned-politician Mukhtar Ansari’s party after merging with it, just three days after the announcement, was a key player who turns down the decision again. This results in Mulayam Singh’s brother Shivpal Yadav, threatening to resign from the party. The SP supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav stops him from quitting the party ahead of crucial elections.
September 13: A bureaucrat, Deepak Singhal, the Chief Secretary who was considered to be close to Shivpal Singh Yadav, is removed from his post by Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav. This happens merely 2 months after his appointment. Shivpal Singh Yadav is upset that his aide has been replaced and approaches his brother and patriarch, Mulayam Singh Yadav. (ALSO READ: Akhilesh-Shivpal feud: Who is Balram Yadav in this grand Yadav Mahabharata?)
September 13: Akhilesh Yadav, steps out of his position in the party as its UP unit chief. Instead his uncle, Shivpal Yadav has been appointed as the new Uttar Pradesh Samajwadi Party’s State President. Earlier, Shivpal had threatened to quit the party while addressing a rally in Manipur. The leader had said that some leaders and party officers were not obeying his orders making it difficult for him to function. He also said that he would be forced to resign if the pattern continued within the party. Mulayam Singh Yadav stops Shivpal from resigning and says, “I stopped Shivpal Yadav from resigning from his post. If Shivpal quits, the Samajwadi Party will be in deep trouble. There’s some conspiracy taking place against Shivpal. While he is engaged in his work, there are some who persecutes him.” It was thought that Mulayam Singh Yadav appointed Shivpal as the party’s state chief in a bid to placate him.
September 13: Akhilesh strips Shivapal Singh Yadav of the portfolios of PWD, irrigation, cooperatives, flood control, land development and water resources, wasteland development, revenue, disaster relief and rehabilitation, and public service management portfolios. Moreover, the Principal Secretary for finance, Rahul Bhatnagar, is made the new Chief Secretary. “Singhal has been removed and put on a wait list. Principal Secretary (Finance) Rahul Bhatnagar has been made new Chief Secretary,” an official spokesman says in Lucknow.
September 14: UP Chief Minister Akhilesh speaks to the media and says, ”Where have you found a family fight? This is a fight in government, not a family fight. If people from outside the family keep interfering how will things (government) work”. This statement immediately sends out speculations going that the outsider being referred to here is Samajwadi Party’s Rajya Sabha MP Amar Singh. Amar Singh was earlier accused of creating the rift between Akhilesh and Shivpal Yadav.
September 15 : Another brother of Mulayam Singh Yadav and Samajwadi Party general secretary Ram Gopal Yadav says there is no ‘sankat’ (rift) in the party and adds that if some differences arise on minor points, those can be resolved. He also says it was a wrong decision to remove Akhilesh Yadav as the president of the Samajwadi Party.
September 15 : “Akhilesh Yadav will be the chief ministerial candidate of Samajwadi Party in the upcoming Assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh, “Samajwadi Party leader Naresh Agarwal says.The SP leader also adds”if there is any outsider, who is interfering, he should stop immediately”. (ALSO READ: ‘Samajwadi Party’s Mahabharat’: Personalities from Hindu mythological epic finding resemblance within Yadav clan)
September 15: Shivpal Singh Yadav resigns from the Uttar Pradesh cabinet and also quits as the state unit president of Samajwadi Party. This came about as Akhilesh decided to sack two ministers from his cabinet – Gayatri Prajapati and Rajkishore Singh over allegations of corruption. Both the leaders were considered close to Shivpal.
September 17: Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav says that his uncle, Shivpal Yadav will continue as the Samajwadi Party State President. Akhilesh tweets that Gayatri Prasad Prajapati, who was sacked as Mines Minister will be re-inducted in the Uttar Pradesh cabinet.
September 18: After assuming charge as Samajwadi Party Uttar Pradesh unit president, Shivpal Yadav expels a close relative of his brother Ram Gopal Yadav and another leader for their alleged involvement in land grabbing. This is his first decision after taking charge as SP UP president. Shivpal expels party MLC Arvind Pratap Yadav, who is a nephew of Ram Gopal Yadav and former village head in Etawah.
September 19: A number of youth leaders close to Akhilesh Yadav quit hours after state party chief Shivpal Yadav expelled seven youth leaders, including three MLCs. Sunil Singh Sajan, Anand Bhadauria and Sanjay Lathar — all MLCs — were shown the door for making “derogatory remarks” against party supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav, indulging in anti-party activities and indiscipline by Shivpal, who also cracked the whip on other youth leaders of the pro-chief minister camp. Besides the MLCs, state chief of SP youth brigade Mohd Ebad, state president of SP yuvjan sabha Brijesh Yadav, national president of SP youth brigade Gaurav Dubey, and state chief of chatra sabha Digvijay Singh Dev are sacked from the party on similar grounds by Shivpal.
September 20: Amar Singh, who survived the recent “outsider” storm in ruling Samajwadi Party, is appointed as the SP General Secretary by party supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav.
October 3: Akhilesh Yadav feigns ignorance about an announcement of certain party candidates for the forthcoming assembly polls. Talking to reporters after inaugurating his new office here, Akhilesh Yadav, who is also the Chairman of the party’s state parliamentary board, says “I do not have any idea about any list being released by the party.” Shivpal Singh Yadav had released the new list of the candidates. (ALSO READ: Samajwadi Party internal war: Azam Khan reacts to rift within Yadav family, hints dissent)
October 14 : Mulayam Singh Yadav snubs Akhilesh and says that the party’s Chief Ministerial candidate will be decided by elected party legislatures after the 2017 Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections. “The Chief ministerial candidate will be decided by the elected party legislatures and parliamentary board. This is our job. This is not your (media) work,” he told reporters when asked whether his son Akhilesh Yadav was still the SP’s Chief Ministerial candidate for the upcoming elections.
October 16 : A day after senior party leader Ramgopal Yadav suggested Akhilesh Yadav be made the chief ministerial candidate, Samajwadi Party state president, Shivpal Singh Yadav says he will himself propose Akhilesh’s name for the post of chief minister if the party is voted to power again.
October 17 : After evident hesitation, Samajwadi Party supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav endorses his son Akhilesh Yadav as the presumptive chief ministerial candidate of the party moving into the 2017 Uttar Pradesh assembly elections.
October 21 : Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav skips an important meeting called by state party chief Shivpal Yadav to strategise for the assembly polls due early next year where the latter declared him the party’s chief ministerial face. Akhilesh, however, meets the delegates, who earlier attended the meeting called by Shivpal, at his residence separately. Shivpal had convened a meeting of SP district and city units presidents at the party headquarters earlier in the day but Akhilesh was conspicuous in his absence.
October 22: Member of Legislative Council Udayveer Singh is expelled from the party. The expulsion came as a result of him accusing Mulayam Singh’s second wife of being part of a conspiracy against Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister a day earlier. Udayveer Singh’s expulsion from the Samajwadi Party is to last a period of 6 years. (ALSO READ: Akhilesh-Shivpal feud: Mulayam Singh breaks silence, says “no division in the party, as long as I am there”)
October 23: Akhilesh Yadav calls in a meeting of Samajwadi Party (SP) legislators on Sunday. The meeting has been called at the chief minister’s official 5, Kalidas Marg residence, a day before SP chief Mulayam Singh Yadav meets the party legislators at the state headquarters on Vikramaditya Marg.
October 23: At the meeting called by Akhilesh Yadav at his residence, Shivpal Singh Yadav is sacked from the party. Four other senior leaders who were supporters of Mulayam Singh Yadav are also removed from the party . They include Narad Rai, Om Prakash, Shadab Fatima, Gayatri Prasad Prajapati . More than 100 MLAs had attended the meeting, which was called over the rift between party leaders ahead of the Uttar Pradesh assembly elections of 2017
October 23: Mulayam Singh Yadav sacks Ram Gopal Yadav and expels him from SP for six years. Shivpal Yadav, who was earlier sacked by Akhilesh, says that Ram Gopal has been working for BJP and created groups inside the Samajwadi Party to divide the party. He said, “They have created a group of goons who trouble people and create every kind of nuisance in the state. He (Ram Gopal) has been conspiring against me, he has been involved with BJP to save his son.”
The pari’WAR’ it seems is raging on in full swing. What remains to be seen now is how the ‘Mahabharata’ will end.
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