Nameplates inside SP office addressing Mulayam Singh and Akhilesh Yadav as "Party President".
Highlights
- New plate says Mr Yadav 'Party President' under one with Mr Singh's name
- This seen as reply to Mr Singh's comment that he'll fight Team Akhilesh
- Mulayam Singh and son met last week but failed to resolve differences
No sooner had Mulayam Singh Yadav left the Samajwadi Party office in Lucknow this morning after addressing party workers that a brand new name plate appeared right under the one that announces him as "Party President". The second nameplate says, "Akhilesh Yadav, Party President".
The new nameplate appeared to be a defiant response to Mulayam Singh's comment that he was ready to fight Team Akhilesh if his efforts to unite the Samajwadi Party ahead of crucial assembly elections in UP fail.
Akhilesh Yadav is Mulayam Singh's estranged son and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister. As the two have engaged in a bitter feud for control, Akhilesh was declared party president in place of his father at a meeting attended by a few thousand Samajwadi Party leaders and workers earlier this month.
Father and son met last week but failed to resolve key differences. Mulayam Singh says the meeting at which his son was made party president was illegal. Akhilesh Yadav has said he will return the post of party chief to his father but only after the UP elections are over as he fears that Mulayam Singh's key aides - his younger brother Shivpal Yadav and Amar Singh - will influence key decisions for the UP elections. Akhilesh Yadav accuses the two of instigating his father against him.
As Mulayam Singh spoke to a crowd of about 500 people at the party office today, many raised slogans praising his son, who currently commands bigger support in the Samajwadi Party than his father, who launched the party 25 years ago. Naresh Uttam, a party leader appointed by Akhilesh Yadav as the Samajwadi Party's state chief in place of his uncle Shivpal Yadav, immediately came out and asked the supporters to tone down the sloganeering.
"We continue to respect Netaji immensely. We must not do anything that seems to undermine him," Mr Uttam said. The Akhilesh Yadav nameplate appeared soon after; strategically positioned directly under his father's.
There are two lists of Samajwadi Party candidates for UP - one released by the father, the other by the son. Both have staked claim to the party symbol, the cycle, and the Election Commission is expected to decide today who it will be allotted to.
It could also "freeze" the symbol, which will mean both factions having to pick a new symbol for the UP elections which will be held from February 11 in multiple phases.