MULAYAM LOSING CONTROL OVER SAMAJWADI PARTY ORGANISATION
By Harihar Swarup
The infighting in the Samajwadi Party with each faction pulling its way and party patriarch, Mulayam Singh Yadav changing his decisions each day, indicates that the party is deeply divided. In this situation, the SP is bound to get big jolt in the next year’s assembly election in Uttar Pradesh.
Mulayam Singh has a reputation of being a wily old-school politician. But unprecedented rebellion within his party, unfolding in full public view, indicates that SP supremo is losing grip on his party and can no longer hold it together. His brother Shivpal Yadav was sacked as minister for second time in one month by chief minister Akhilesh Yadav. This unpleasant step was taken after Mulayam Singh has undertaken much-heralded internal party meeting between feuding uncle and nephew to bury the hatchet.
It ended with unusually direct and emotional verbal spat between Mulayam and Akhilesh on the dais. It was yet another signal that differences within the party and the family have grown beyond point of conciliation.
Akhilesh needs to break free from the political shackles of his father. Delaying this will only undermine his political standing. For the first three years as chief minister, Akhliesh found himself in a Manmohan Singh like situation where he was in the hot seat but his authority was undermined. He also inherited his father’s trusted lieutenants in his cabinet. Most of them are practitioners of caste-based politics under Mulayam Singh Yadav himself synonymous with post Mandal identity politics. In practical terms, this translated into a government that was akin to previous SP regimes characterized by nepotism and lawlessness.
Akhilesh tried to rectify that anomaly in recent times by cracking down on criminal elements within SP. He has been trying to portray himself as a leader committed to development and class aspirations specifically, focusing on women and youth. In an rapidly urbanizing and aspirational state, SP is at cross roads – old guard representing the forces of caste and muscle power versus Akhilesh who wants to modernize and be in tune with 21st century India.
Irrespective of who emerges victorious in the turf war between old guards and young Turks, the loser will be the party. Akhilesh should tread his own path and create an outfit without the liability of his uncle Shivpal or Amar Singh whom he has blamed for the rift in the family. He may not be able to emulate the success of 2012 in the next year’s election, but could become a force to reckon with by 2019 if he plays his cards correctly now.
Within 24 hours, Mulayam Singh went back on his statement that SP legislators, once elected, will decide on who the next chief minister will be. The subtext was; Akhilesh will not be declared chief ministerial candidate. The decision came in the background of visible rift between Akhilesh and his backers, on one hand, and Mulayam’s brother Shivpal and his associates on the other.. Increasingly, Mulayam himself has tilted towards his brother in the battle., While skeptics have said this may be good-cop, bad-cop act—or Mulayam’s clever way of managing both sides—there is now adequate evidence of a deep, fundamental divide in the party. This division is as much about personalities an ambitions, as it is about of SP itself, what it stands for, whether it will remain mired solely in identity politics or will go beyond and become a more modern party, and its broader vision for UP. And in this division, the old guards seems to be winning for now.
Across the state, if there is one good thing, people including critics, say about the SP—it is that Akhilesh has been like a breathof fresh air. He is seen as well-intentioned, as sincere and as committed to a development agenda, in tune with aspirations of the youth. He also practiced the politics of hope. This is a departure from past CMs who thrived on the politics of resentment—Kalyan Singh stoked dislike of Muslims, Mulayam stoked fears among Muslims, Mayawati’s politics rested on historic injustice. Whether Akhilesh was able to deliver, whether this is just an image or reality, can be debated. But the modernist impulse he brought to the party, cannot be denied.
This is precisely what SP old guards could not tolerate. For them, the state is nothing more than an instrument to extract benefits for them.. Politics is all about maintaining caste-based patronage networks, which can be nourished in power and utilized in elections. This includes empowering party cadres to defy law, and assert power over others—including the administration. Shivpal would have been happy if Akhilesh was a mere power head, while they continued their politics as usual. The CM is paying price for his effort to carve out a new path. Mulayam’s decision is a firm signal that he stands with old guards as against the new programme being charted out by his son Akhilesh. (IPA Service)