At Samajwadi Party office, the sound of silence

There was an eerie sil-ence and mobile phones of almost all Samajwadi MLAs remained either switched off or out of network area.

The Samajwadi Party headquarters on Vikramaditya Marg was bustling with activity with OB vans of all leading channels blocking the road outside.

Inside, there was whispering and murmuring but not a single leader was ready to even exchange greetings with mediapersons.

The motley crowd of party workers were seen and heard wondering aloud about the prevailing crisis.

Majority of them felt that it was time for Netaji (Mulayam Singh) to take over as chief minister and put the party back on the rails.

“This is the only way in which the party will remain united. The fissures have become too deep and a split will take place sooner than later,” said a party worker from Sonebhadra.

Another quipped, “Our leaders are being ill-advised and coming on the eve of elections, this will have an adverse impact on the party’s prospects.”

The MLAs, on the other hand, seemed increasingly restive. “Our future depends on the outcome of this crisis. If Shivpal Yadav quits the government, we will have to look for other options because it was he who brought us into the Samajwadi Party. We do not know whether Akhilesh Yadav will give us a ticket or not,” said a party MLA from eastern UP.

Another legislator, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said, “It will be difficult to survive in a party where the leaders are at loggerheads. There have been a number of occasions when we have been ticked off by one leader for meeting another leader from the family. The situation has been like a ticking time bomb that has finally exploded.”

A senior SP minister went on to blame a “set of bureaucrats” for creating mistrust among the top SP leaders of the family.

“I have seen some officers carrying tales to and fro and have even warned some leaders, but when you reach a high position, the sound of advice becomes painstakingly slow,” he said.