Sonny Side UP

Akhilesh unseats Mulayam and takes over the Samajwadi Party, and there seems to be no truce in sight.

- Ajay Uprety

On December 30, at midnight, a senior member of the Samajwadi Party’s parliamentary board was woken up by the frantic ringing of his phone. On the other end was state party president Shivpal Singh Yadav, who told the leader to reach Lucknow immediately. Similar calls were made to other members of the board, but the reason for doing so was not clear. Were they to attend a parliamentary board meeting or the party’s national convention? The following day, when the leader landed in Lucknow, he again got a call at midnight. It was Shivpal again. After a few minutes of discussion, the leader was invited to breakfast the next day.

Other board members had been getting calls from the warring factions of Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav and his uncle Shivpal. Each camp wanted party heavyweights on its side so that it could influence the national convention, which had been called by party general secretary Ram Gopal Yadav—an Akhilesh supporter.

And, on New Year’s Day, it was a new party. At the convention, the national executive elected Akhilesh as party president and kicked his father, Mulayam Singh Yadav, upstairs as party mentor.