Samajwadi Party may go to Mulayam, but Akhilesh is the winner

Uttar Pradesh chief minister Akhilesh Yadav and his supporters have moved with alacrity to take control of the party. Samajwadi Party supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav stands sidelined and stripped of all his decision-making powers, while Shivpal Yadav has been unceremoniously dumped as state president and Amar Singh too has been shown the door. The chief minister has installed his supporters in key positions of the Samajwadi Party.

Outwitted and divested of control, the Mulayam Singh Yadav camp has taken the battle to the Election Commission reiterating its claim to the party symbol. The Akhilesh camp will call on the EC tomorrow to contest it and a protracted battle is likely to ensue.

Several of the CECs are of the view that the "cycle" symbol of the SP will, in all likelihood, be frozen and both factions will have to contest the forthcoming Assembly elections with new symbols. The Akhilesh camp is working to consolidate its hold on the party by persuading the remaining elected representatives in the Mulayam camp to cross over. Professor Ram Gopal Yadav has emerged as the strategic mastermind of the Akhilesh camp. Working closely with him are Kiranmoy Nanda, Naresh Agarwal, Surinder Nagar and Dharmendar Yadav.

The few fence sitters who remain are being contacted to read the writing on the wall and to pitch their bandwagon to the CM. Tomorrow, when he calls on the Election Commission, Ram Gopal Yadav will carry with him copies of the resolution, complete with signatures of more than 200 MLAs, and an overwhelming majority of the party MLCs, MPs and SP office bearers.

The idea is to present a foolproof case to prove that almost the entire party has pledged its support to the chief minister, and demand that his faction be recognised as the official symbol and be allotted the "cycle" symbol.

Two former ministers Om Prakash Singh and Narad Rai, both Shivpal acolytes who had been sacked by the chief minister himself, crossed over this afternoon. The CM's supporters are reaching out to representatives in their respective areas to get as many party functionaries as possible to pledge their support to Akhilesh Yadav.

Efforts are also on to persuade Rajya Sabha MP Beni Prasad Verma, an old Mulayam associate, to cross over. A special emissary has been despatched to Dehradun to get Jaya Bachchan's signature on the letter of support in favour of the CM. She is currently vacationing at a resort near the tourist hub.

The Mulayam Singh Yadav camp has been to left to lick its wounds. Its best bet lies in depriving the Akhilesh-led faction the use of the party symbol. It has already petitioned the EC and is also seeking legal opinion on the viability of challenging Mulayam Singh Yadav's removal as the party chief - and the validity of Sunday's national convention.

Irrespective of which camp gets the Election Commission to recognise itself as the formal party, it is Akhilesh Yadav who has won politically.