Yadav ‘pari-war’ reignites as Akhilesh names 403 poll candidates against Shivapal’s 175

The internal feud within Samajwadi Party (SP) doesn’t seem to be ending soon as Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav and his uncle and party president Shivpal Yadav are now at loggerheads over distribution of party tickets for upcoming assembly elections.

Akhilesh, on Sunday evening, drew up his own list of 403 poll candidates and submitted it to party supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav. He also conveyed his opinion to Malayam Singh regarding 181 declared seats to what he alleged as ‘tainted’ persons. Earlier, Shivpal has already submitted a list of 175 candidates.

Samajwadi Party state chief Shivpal Yadav is officially in charge of ticket distribution in consultation with party president Mulayam Singh.

The suprise move by Akhilesh seems to have angered uncle Shivpal, who tweeted that “The party will not tolerate any indiscipline that might hurt party’s image” and that ticket distribution would be decided by “victory potential”.

This is not the first time that Akhilesh and his uncle have clashed over tickets distribution. Two weeks ago, the Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister expressed his displeasure over the party’s decision to field alleged don-turned politicians Atiq Ahmed and Mukhtar Ansari’s brother Sibaqtullah Ansari for next year’s assembly elections.

The Ansari brothers belong to Quami Ekta Dal which found support from Shivpal to merge with the party despite opposition from Akhilesh. Akhilesh and Shivpal have been at loggerheads over the merger of the Quami Ekta Dal with the Samajwadi Party, with the latter supporting the move.

On the other hand, Uttar Pradesh Congress chief Raj Babbar on Sunday ruled out the rumours of Congress going for an alliance with any party in the upcoming state elections, saying that the party is “capable enough” to fight elections on its own.

Earlier, senior Congress leader and party in-charge of Uttar Pradesh Ghulam Nabi Azad had termed the rumours over the alliance between the Samajwadi Party, Congress and the Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) for upcoming Uttar Pradesh assembly elections as “completely baseless”.

Political experts belive that the ongoing family feud could cast a shadow on the party’s outlook towards pre-poll alliance with Congress. While Akhilesh’s faction is exploring ways to accommodate Congress’ unreasonable demands, Shivpal Yadav-Amar Singh faction is trying to leverage alliance to deny Akhileh’s projection as CM candidate for the alliance.

“The rival faction pushing for alliance with Congress and RLD (of Ajit Singh) is only with a vested interest to ensure elections are not contested with Akhilesh Yadav as CM face of the alliance,” Economic Times quoted a party source as saying.