Akhilesh versus Shivpal: Yadav clan's cold war is now out in the open
The cold war in UP's ruling Yadav clan is now in the open. Chief minister Akhilesh Yadav, who had been taking it lying down for four-and-a-half years, has finally mustered up courage to rise to the occasion and tell his overbearing "chacha" Shivpal Yadav that enough is enough.
Samajwadi Party supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav, who has been doing the balancing act ever since he chose to anoint son Akhilesh as inheritor of his political legacy in 2012, has once again tilted the balance in favour of Akhilesh, who has, at long last, decided to declare that he is in command. He had been taking repeated public reprimand by the father silently for four and a half years and could not assert himself even where it was required. Others, including the "chacha", took advantage of the situation and continued to treat him like the "family boy".
Political circles began to term UP as a state with five and a half chief minsters of which Akhilesh was described as the "half". Akhilesh displayed his first signs of assertion barely two months back when he shot down chacha Shivpal Yadav's plan for merger of mafia don turned politician Mukhtar Ansari's Qaumi Ekta Dal (QED) with the Samajwadi Party.
Having had an earlier showdown with his chacha when he could not resist the re-entry of Amar Singh in the party, Akhilesh made sure that he did not have to suffer another humiliation, so he ensured snapping of the merger with Mukhtar's party. He took a strong line on the plea that such action would only give a bad name to SP at a time when the state was heading for the next poll in March 2017.
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| Being stripped off Samajwadi Party's UP president's post has irked Akhilesh Yadav, but Shivpal wants more. [Photo credit: PTI] |
Shivpal hit back shortly thereafter, by getting his man Friday Deepak Singhal on the chief secretary's chair, despite stiff opposition from Akhilesh, who did not approve of the 1982 batch IAS officer, because of his ill-repute and shady past.
Akhilesh's argument that Singhal's induction in the top job would tarnish his government's image fell on deaf ears as father Mulayam preferred to oblige younger brother Shivpal. It took Akhilesh two months to muster up courage and surprise all and sundry by giving marching orders to Singhal, who had already caused him much embarrassment in various ways.
What gave him the strength to rise from his docility was the earlier week's high court order that turned down the government's plea for withdrawal of a CBI probe against his tainted mining minister Gayatri Prajapati, who enjoys close proximity to both Mulayam and Shivpal.
All along Akhilesh had found himself helpless against the minister, who was getting away with murder with illegal mining touching new heights under his tutelage, simply because of the clout he enjoyed with Mulayam. Barely 48 hours after the court rejected the government's plea to withdraw the CBI probe against the mining ministe, Akhilesh cracked the whip on him and ordered his ouster from his cabinet.
According to informed sources, Akhilesh made it a point to take his father into confidence and he also convinced him on the necessity to sack Prajapati to avert the CBI heat on any member of the ruling Yadav clan.
While Mulayam was convinced about action against Prajapati, the firing of Singhal was viewed by hi as some kind of defiance by the son. After all Singhal's appointment was made at the behest of not just Shivpal but also Amar Singh and above all Mulayam himself as also his (Mulayam's) blue-eyed principal secretary to chief minister Anita Singh, with whom Akhilesh could never get along. This powerful lobby managed to easily provoke Mulayam into divesting Akhilesh of the position of state Samajwadi Party chief and entrusting the charge to Shivpal.
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| Mulayam Singh Yadav has been reprimanding son Akhilesh in public since May 2012. [Photo credit: PTI] |
Akhilesh retaliated by stripping Shivpal of the key portfolios of public works, revenue and irrigation - considered as gold mines of the government. Instead, Shivpal was given a far less lucrative social welfare ministry. Clearly the knives were out as such a drastic step was the last thing the chacha could have imagined in his wildest of dreams from the nephew. Mulayam continued to keep himself perched in Delhi, Shivpal joined him Wednesday afternoon.
Even as the war between the chacha and nephew was on, both were particular about not making a single utterance directly against each other. Yet much could be easily read between the lines. "I take certain decisions while Netaji (Mulayam) takes other important decisions but interference by some outsiders had led to problems," Akhilesh told mediapersons in Lucknow.
His remark about the "outsider" is an obvious reference to Amar Singh whom he sees as a key culprit behind the ongoing feud.
Shivpal, on the other hand, went about harping on just one thing: "No one in the party had the authority to override whatever Netaji decides to do; and I will abide by whatever he tells me to do", thereby, making it loud and clear that the buck stops only with Mulayam.
Sure enough, he cannot be content with the state party chief's position he has usurped from Akhilesh. After all, with Akhilesh firmly in the chief minister's saddle, he is bound to wield greater authority over the party. Therefore he is understood to be seeking much more - so that his eroded status in the government gets restored.
If insiders are to be believed, Shivpal is not ready to settle for anything less than restoration of the multiple portfolios as also reinstatement of his blue-eyed Deepak Singhal - a deal that would leave Akhilesh completely high and dry.
The ball is in Mulayam's court. And how the ailing septuagenarian SP supremo manages to once again successfully do the balancing act at this very crucial juncture, only time will tell.