What Akhilesh Yadav Said In Morning's Phone Call With Mulayam

While Akhilesh Yadav has dealt a knockout blow to "pitaji" (father) in the bout to be declared the supremo of the Samajwadi Party (SP), both are also realising in danger of alienating voters, specially Muslims who form a huge SP vote-bank. Realising that losing the cycle brand and symbol might hurt both of them, the estranged father and son spoke for ten minutes on the phone this morning. The Election Commission has received competing claims from father and son on the party symbol – it could ban both from using it till it decides who is the rightful owner.

Sources say an angry and tearful Mulayam Singh accused "Tipu" of "betrayal" and said that he had "wrecked the party I have built". Yadav Junior was conciliatory and kept repeating that he only wanted the "trouble makers out who were nothing but agents of the BJP's Amit Shah". The phone call was brokered by Azam Khan who is learnt to have told Mulayam bluntly that he and the SP cadre could not choose between the father and son and the "snake" who had broken many families was trying to destroy the SP. No prizes for guessing that the snake reference was to the much-loathed Amar Singh. Azam Khan had earlier publicly said that "Amar Singh ought to introspective why he was so hated".

Sources say Mulayam heard Khan, one of his oldest and closest aides, patiently.

Khan is learnt to have pointed out that while UP Muslims who can swing several UP constituencies have an emotional connect with "Mullah Mulayam", they would not risk splitting their votes if Yadav Junior and Senior formed two parties and competed against each other. In that case, the Muslims would prefer to back another party - Mayawati, mainly.

Khan's straight talk shook Mulayam and after speaking to Tipu, he decided to fly back from Delhi to Lucknow, leaving aides Shivpal Yadav and Amar Singh behind in Delhi. Apparently, the duo was visibly crestfallen after the father-son phone call. Both are learnt to be in touch with Mulayam Singh's second wife Sadhana Gupta and daughter-in-law Aparna Yadav. Sources say Aparna Yadav even tried to swing a meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Lucknow yesterday. She has publicly praised Modi earlier, causing much unease to Akhilesh and leading him to file a complaint with his father.

While Modi had a huge rally yesterday in Lucknow yesterday and publicly gloated at the size of the crowd, veteran UP political watchers say only the media from Delhi, who does not understand the nuances of UP politics, cheerleads these "events" excellently arranged by BJP President Amit Shah.

Sources point out that Shah is extremely worried about the Muslim vote switching en bloc to Mayawati, virtually making her position impregnable. Mayawati has already selected 130 Muslim candidates and is vigorously campaigning among these seats.

If no truce is brokered in the SP, and the party actually splits, the direct beneficiary will be Mayawati, and she's upping the ante among the Muslim voters saying only she can stop Modi and the BJP from coming to power in Uttar Pradesh. Interestingly, these days, she mocks note-bandi (demonetisation) and Modi's good governance claims, and says she's the only one who can restore law and order, a noticeable failure in Akhilesh's tenure as Chief Minister. He in turn passes the blame to Shivpal Yadav.

In Muslim-dominated constituencies, Mayawati's meetings start with an azan or Muslim call to prayer, and she stops speaking if it's prayer time, a noticeable departure from the past.

So will father and son unite and ensure that they contest the elections together? Azam Khan has pointed out to both that the actual enemies are outside the party. 77-year- old Mulayam has vaulting ambitions to be President of India, which Amar Singh and the BJP have both played to very cleverly by arranging quiet meetings with three top BJP leaders who nodded along as Amar Singh proclaimed "only Netaji can be Rashtrapati."

But today, Netaji realises that if the SP splits, he will be a nowhere man. Even Yadav Junior understands the damage that will be wreaked by a divided cadre and in fighting the election with a new party name and symbol. Akhilesh, while bitter at the treatment meted out by his father, realises that Mulayam still has a huge connect with older rural voters and the Muslims. The optics of contesting against his own father will not go down well with public perception.

Both father and son have carefully left enough ground to at least patch up publicly in a show of grace while conveniently blaming outsiders for the bout.

The casualties in the patch up will be Amar Singh and the Shivpal-Aparna Yadav faction. With his show of strength which drew thousands of party workers to the meeting called by him, Akhilesh has publicly exposed the lack of base and support for Shivpal Yadav. As for Amar Singh, he's like a cat with nine lives and is still arranging secret meetings between Netaji and the top leadership of the BJP. Yadav Junior will not accept Singh's continuance at any price and those involved in the palace intrigue speculate that "Aparna Yadav may just join the BJP which would be her natural home.”

Akhilesh has also noted with dismay the Congress’ reluctance to offer him public support despite his open endorsement of an alliance. A partnership with the Congress will be the price Netaji is likely to extract from him as part of the patch-up and punishment for his coup.

The Election Commission is likely to declare the dates for the UP election tomorrow and the implications for the SP are obvious: if they unite, they are still in the fray; if divided, it’s Advantage Mayawati. So while a reconciliation may be cosmetic, it may not be elusive for much longer.

(Swati Chaturvedi is an author and a journalist who has worked with The Indian Express, The Statesman and The Hindustan Times.)

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