| Lucknow: An epic confrontation combining the palace intrigue of the Ramayanand the fratricidal rancour of the Mahabharat is unfolding in India's political heartland.
Akhilesh Yadav today fired uncle and rival Shivpal Yadav from his cabinet along with three loyalists, prompting the state party chief to retaliate by suspending the chief minister's strongest supporter and party senior Ram Gopal Yadav.
As the feud within the ruling Samajwadi Party's first family approached crisis point months before the Assembly polls, patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav, thought to have favoured brother Shivpal over son Akhilesh so far, told reporters: "I'll talk about it tomorrow."
Both rivals invoked Netaji (Mulayam) today. Before firing Shivpal, Akhilesh gathered his supporters, claimed to be Mulayam's "sole heir" and threatened to punish anyone "trying to create confusion" between father and son, sources said.
Shivpal told the media he was following Mulayam's directives in clamping a six-year suspension on cousin Ram Gopal, a Rajya Sabha member, party general secretary and national spokesperson, over "gross indiscipline".
A failure on Mulayam's part to find a quick solution could affect the contours of the Uttar Pradesh elections, due early next year.
The Congress is currently resisting pressure to align with the Samajwadis because of the party's negative image. However, Rahul Gandhi had spared Akhilesh while attacking others in his family during his recent kisan yatra through the state.
If Akhilesh, who has a clean image, can prove he has stepped out of the shadow of Mulayam and Shivpal, the Congress might be willing to consider an alliance.
According to a party source, Akhilesh today told his loyalists: "I remained silent for four-and-a-half years because I didn't want to create a controversy. But now it is inevitable, and I will fight this battle for my rights."
Akhilesh's decision came at a meeting at his home that provided a hint of his muscle in the party - more than 200 among the Samajwadis' 226 MLAs were in attendance along with three dozen of the party's 50-odd MLCs.
The chief minister asked them how he should handle the family feud that was constantly undermining him.
He began by declaring his unflinching loyalty to "Netaji", saying he would attend all his father's meetings and programmes including the party's silver jubilee celebrations on November 5, which he had been threatening to snub.
"I won't spare anybody conspiring against Netaji. He has made me chief minister and I will always follow his instructions, but those trying to create confusion between us will be punished," minister Rajendra Chaudhary quoted Akhilesh as saying.
Another party source said: "Most of those present said Shivpal was trying to weaken him by suspending his close confidants; so he should act immediately. We all clapped when Akhilesh said he was thinking of removing Shivpal from his cabinet. He said, 'I am his (Mulayam's) son and his only heir in the party'."
Unconfirmed reports said Akhilesh had also removed Jaya Prada from the state film development board, where the veteran actress had been incorporated in August following her political godfather Amar Singh's return to the party in May. Amar has been given a Rajya Sabha berth.
"Akhilesh told the meeting that the problems started in the family after Amar's return, and that such people and their aides wouldn't be allowed to remain in the party," a source said.
The three others Akhilesh has sacked along with his uncle are tourism minister Om Prakash Singh, science and technology minister Narad Rai, and women's welfare minister Shadab Fatima.
Within two hours, Shivpal announced Ram Gopal's suspension, citing a letter the MP had written earlier today to some of his party associates.
"Netaji is surrounded by the wrong people. But those who don't support Akhilesh will not be able to win elections," a source quoted from Ram Gopal's letter.
A PTI report quoted Ram Gopal as borrowing from the Mahabharat to say he would always be with Akhilesh in the dharma yudh (holy war) although Mulayam would remain his guru.
The continuing strife within the Yadav dynasty, playing out in public for the past six weeks, indeed carries echoes of both the great Indian epics. If, like the Mahabharat, it has pitted nephew against uncle and cousin against cousin, the person being blamed as the cause of it all is a stepmother, as in the Ramayan.
Akhilesh loyalists say Shivpal is a pawn in the hands of Sadhana Gupta, whom Mulayam had married after the death of Akhilesh's mother Malati Devi. Sadhana is accused of using Shivpal to unsettle Akhilesh's position so that her son Prateek, now into real estate, can take over along with his politically ambitious wife Aparna.
It was Akhilesh's sacking of then mining minister and Sadhana confidant G.P. Prajapati that had triggered the latest round of the power struggle on September 12.
Shivpal said today: "Ram Gopal is writing letters and making them public. He is playing into the BJP's hands because he fears a CBI probe into a corruption case against his son (Firozabad MP Akshay Yadav) and daughter-in-law."
Akshay has been linked with Yadav Singh, former engineer-in-chief of Noida, Greater Noida and the Yamuna Expressway Authority, who is in jail custody and is being investigated by the CBI for a financial scandal.
Ram Gopal denied the corruption charge. "I'm a Rajya Sabha member and keep meeting BJP leaders," he said. |
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