SP posters reaffirm MSY’s position as patriarch

Lucknow: The strain in the family relations may still be far from over, but the Samajwadi Party is now taking care to get its public messages, ahead of its silver jubilee celebrations, in order. Posters of the Samajwadi function on Saturday found Akhilesh taking centrestage next to SP chief Mulayam Singh Yadav, even as the mega programme is being planned and executed under the watch of uncle Shivpal Yadav, who is also the state chief.
Almost all the posters, hoardings and banners that have come up on all the roads leading to thge venue Janeshwar Misra Park have huge pictures of Mulayam with Akhilesh and Shivpal in smaller frames sending out the message that the SP patriarch was still in total control of the party.
Though most of the posters have general captions welcoming the party workers, some huge hoardings near the venue read: "Ujjwal Hai Bhawaish Humara, Akhileshji Bane Mukhya Mantri Dobara" stand out in size and depiction of Akhilesh as the party's CM candidate for the 2017 assembly elections.
Hoarding of don-turned-politician and sitting MLA Mukhar Ansari along with his brothers Afzal and Sibghatullah have also come up on red and green banners, welcoming the SP workers. These posters have come as a confirmation that Ansari brother's QED has indeed been merged with the SP. While Afzal was elected as SP MP in 2004 but later went on to float the QED in 2010, Mukhtar has never been a member of the SP before. QED’s merger with SP has been major bone of contention between Akhilesh and his uncle Shivpal as the latter was against inducting the jailed MLA Mukhtar Ansari into the party fold.
Meanwhile, Shivpal has warned the expelled youth leaders, who have aligned with Akhilesh during the recent fued within the Yadav clan, to stay away from the event. As members of Janeshwar Misra Trust, these youth leaders were the organisers of Akhilesh's Vikas Rath that was flagged off on Thursday by Mulayam. But the party leadership deos not want to include them in the silver jubilee celebrations. "They have been expelled from the party and are not supposed to attend the party event," Shivpal said.
Party insiders said the organisers of the party function on November 5 have been instructed to ensure that they do not enter the venue of the event being held at Janeshwar Misra Park in Lucknow. Even the district authorities have been asked to handle strictly, anyone trying to "disrupt" the event. Interestingly, these youth leaders had put up posters and banners for Akhilesh's Rath Yatra but have kept themselves away from the silver jubilee celebration program. In fact supporters of most of the expelled leaders had, about a fortnight ago, declared that they would also boycott the party function if the expulsion of their leaders was not withdrawn by the party. The party leadership seems to have stood its ground and refused to budge by warning these leaders to stay away from the event on November 5.