Election commission said that Akhilesh Yadav faction won the "cycle" symbol for UP polls.
Akhilesh Yadav had the support of 195 lawmakers and over 5,000 party delegates, the Election Commission said today as it decided that the
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister rightfully owns the Samajwadi Party that his estranged father Mulayam Singh Yadav founded over three decades ago.
"The group led by Akhilesh Yadav is the Samajwadi Party and
is entitled to use its name and its reserved symbol 'bicycle'," the powerful election body said in an order that
shakes up political equations in Uttar Pradesh just before the February-March election.
The commission said that the Chief Minister's faction has won the right to use the "cycle" symbol in the polls.
"Akhilesh Yadav enjoys overwhelming majority support, both among the legislative and organizational wing of the party," said the Election Commission order, which set off massive celebrations outside the Lucknow home of the Chief Minister.
The 43-year-old also has the support of four Lok Sabha members, 11 Rajya Sabha lawmakers, 31 members of the National Executive and 48 Members of the Legislative Council, said the Commission.
To stake his claim on the party symbol, Akhilesh Yadav had submitted six boxes full of support pledges signed by party men who had also attended his January 1 convention and voted him national president in place of Mulayam Singh - or "Netaji" as the 70-year-old is popular as in his party.
The Election Commission said in any democratic institution, "the will of majority should prevail in the internal functioning of the party and if the majority will is suppressed or not allowed to have a proper expression, it will amount to tyranny of the minority".
The dispute within the Samajwadi Party "cannot be decided on the touchstone of the functioning of the rival groups", so the Commission said it has to necessarily apply the test of majority.