Significance of Samajwadi Party splitting, with Shivpal Yadav forming new outfit and Mulayam as head

Tipu is injured but is holding the chair he wrested away from father Mulayam Singh Yadav, all the while trying to sweep the dirt under the carpet.

Uncle Shivpal on the other hand is making last ditch efforts to wrest away from Akhilesh Yadav the legacy of Mulayam Singh Yadav.

As such, after salvos aimed at his nephew failed to cause the desired ripples, Shivpal finally made a final effort - this time by announcing the formation of Samajwadi Secular Morcha and anointing Mulayam its president.

But ambiguity surrounds the formation of the Morcha and suits Shivpal perfectly.

The ambiguity leads to an obliterated perception of the formation of the Morcha. Is the Samajwadi Secular Morcha an announcement of the formation of a new party? At least not at this stage. A new party with a new symbol and new officebearers may be in the offing but where is the desired strength or support to Shivpal?

Despite the drubbing in the recently concluded Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections and despite the Congress announcing the end of the alliance with the SP, Akhilesh seems to be in complete control of the saddle.

Except Shivpal there has not been any vociferous voice of protest. And till date, be it pre-election or post-election, the salvos of Shivpal have proved to be damp squibs.

Shivpal also knows that within the party, he is far more marginalised and Akhilesh has lost no opportunity in projecting his dislike for his uncle. Mulayam has been vacillating between putra moh and brotherly love and as such has not been able to take any rigid stand.

While Mulayam has voiced his displeasure at his son, beyond the rhetoric he does not seem to have taken any significant step to truncate Akhilesh.

Mulayam has more or less confined himself to oblivion after his outburst of having been insulted by his own son. Photo: Reuters

For the SP, it's the legacy of Mulayam that matters if the party has to keep intact its traditional votebank. Akhilesh now knows well that during elections the people rejected his slogan of "UP ko ye saath pasand hai" and even "kaam bolta hai".

Akhilesh was so confident of a win that on the first day of this year, while calling a meeting of his party workers in a show of strength at the Janeshwar Mishra Park, he had taken the bold step of relieving his uncle of all party posts and taking control of the SP by elevating himself as its president.

He had gone to the extent of saying that Mulayam was being allegedly poisoned by vested interests for political scores. He had also said that he would gift his father a victory in UP as respect to him.

But post the humiliating defeat in the polls, uncle Shivpal has been reminding his nephew repeatedly about the promise he made of giving back the chair to his father if he lost.

Mulayam has more or less confined himself to oblivion after his outburst of having been insulted by his own son. Shivpal on the other hand seems to be gaining by nurturing the wounds of his brother and targeting Akhilesh again and again.

The announcement of Samajwadi Secular Morcha and making Mulayam its president may not serve much of a purpose on the political horizon. But it surely does serve purpose in the party and within the family.

Shivpal has thrown bait to fence-sitters within the SP. He has built a platform within the party and wants support in the name of Mulayam. Akhilesh may rubbish the new outfit at this juncture because voices of dissent are not too many but given the unpredictability of Mulayam, a lot may depend on the move that he makes.

For Shivpal, on the other hand, there is not much of an option. He would be more or less hoping against hope that the other secular parties, both within or outside the state, will think of joining his secular Morcha, which is shrouded in obscurity.

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