Yadav family feud: Damage irreversible, now SP govt at stake
Akhilesh Yadav’s supporters protest against Amar Singh in Lucknow on Sunday. (Deepak Gupta/HT Photo)
Succession battles in political families are rarely smooth. DMK patriarch Karunanidhi has passed the party’s baton by and large comfortably to his son MK Stalin, but Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav, caught between his demanding brother and son, has failed miserably.
The SP power struggle has split the Yadav family and the 25-year-old party, which is gearing up for silver jubilee celebrations. Party seniors who had judiciously kept out of the feud woke up late. Their efforts yielded no result.
The issues are not limited to the chief ministerial-candidate for the 2017 polls, but the role of outsiders in party affairs, ticket distribution and control over the party.
At stake now is the government that Mulayam’s son, Akhilesh Yadav, heads. Will Mulayam, an astute politician, ensure fall of his own party’s government or manipulate installation of his brother, Shivpal Yadav, as chief minister?
Mulayam is known to flex muscles against rivals. But will he do against his own son? The patriarch’s tilt is clearly towards his brother. When an angry Akhilesh stripped Shivpal of his portfolios, the father took away the son’s state presidentship. Now, Mulayam sacked Ram Gopal, the chief minister’s pillar of support since the day he assumed office.