Samajwadi Party has been shaken by a power tussle featuring Shivpal Yadav and nephew Akhilesh Yadav.
Highlights
- Shivpal Yadav tweets election candidates to be selected on winnability
- Comes amid reported tussle over candidates with nephew Akhilesh
- Samajwadi Party shaken by feud between the two leaders in the last year
On Sunday afternoon, Samajwadi Party's Uttar Pradesh chief Shivpal Yadav, Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav's uncle, sent out a series of tweets - seemingly without provocation - suggesting that he was the boss when it came to distributing tickets for the assembly elections due early next year.
"Tickets will be distributed based on wins. So far 175 people have been given tickets. The Chief Minister will be selected by the legislative party which is according to the party's constitution. No indiscipline will be tolerated in the party," he tweeted in Hindi.
Those in the know of things in the party, shaken by a running feud and turf war between Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav on one side and Shivpal and Akhilesh's father and party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav on the other over the last year, say the tweets are the sign of yet another brewing war between Shivpal and Akhilesh over seat distribution.
Among those given tickets by Shivpal over the last month are Atiq Ahmed from Kanpur, who faces over 40 criminal cases including murder and attempt murder; the brother of jailed gangster Mukhtar Ansari; and a ticket for Aman Mani Tripathi, now arrested by the CBI in a case related to the killing of his wife.
This has reportedly upset Akhilesh Yadav so much, sources say, that he has sounded out his father Mulayam and asked him to intervene. Some reports also say that Akhilesh has even handed over a list of 403 names, his preferred candidates for the polls to his father.
In one of his tweets on Sunday afternoon, Shivpal Yadav seemed to answer the curious choice of candidates questions - it's all about winnability, he tweeted.
"Why are you asking me," Akhilesh Yadav had asked the media at a function on Saturday, adding, "Tickets, alliances - the final call is with Neta ji (Mulayam)."
"This is a sign that the party is in total disarray and they talk about giving a fight to the BJP," said Vijay Bahadur Pathak, a senior BJP leader in Uttar Pradesh, saying the tussle in the Samajwadi Party will prove to be its nemesis in the coming polls.