CM Akhilesh expelled: Was Mulayam unable to stand his son’s rise in SP?

Only Samajwadi Party patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav can perhaps answer why he took the suicidal decision to expel his popular chief minister-son from the party months before crucial assembly elections. He explained that it was done “in the interest of the party” he had raised and reared. But the reason he offered fails to check the buzz that he sacrificed his party for the sake of his extended family, and some friends.

Only Samajwadi Party patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav can perhaps answer why he took the suicidal decision to expel his popular chief minister-son from the party months before crucial assembly elections.

Samajwadi Party supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav and party's UP president Shivpal Singh Yadav during the expulsion announcement of CM Akhilesh Yadav and Ram Gopal Yadav, in Lucknow on Friday. (PTI)

He explained that it was done “in the interest of the party” he had raised and reared. But the reason he offered fails to check the buzz that he sacrificed his party for the sake of his extended family, and some friends.

Party sources say Mulayam’s second wife Sadhana Gupta, who had never interfered with his political affairs before, started taking a keen interest after the elevation of Akhilesh Yadav.

She made her first public appearance at a political function for her ambitious daughter-in-law Aparna Yadav, the candidate for Lucknow Cantonment.

Akhilesh supporters protest his expulsion from the SP, in Lucknow on Friday night.

Akhilesh and Sadhna never shared a close rapport, though they maintain cordial relations in public.

“He calls me uncle, he takes me on a round of Janeshwar Park, but does not take my calls or suggestions, if any, on important matters,” Singh once said about Akhilesh.

Singh has always been close to Mulayam, who feels indebted to the support from his friend during trying times.

For his part, Akhilesh often said he wouldn’t allow interference of outsiders, especially if they get typewriters to write his removal from the state presidentship.

Mulayam did not like Akhilesh’s image growing bigger than him or the party, though he initially wanted his son to be counted as the best chief minister in the country. He wanted Akhilesh to toe the party’s traditional line.

Akhilesh had said: “My father fighting the hegemony of the upper caste in the state politics might have befriended muscle power. The politics has changed and people will vote for development.”

In other words, muscle is not required to win elections. Instead of remaining a puppet chief minister, Akhilesh decided to change the face of the party, and succeeded partly. The SP with a rural face suddenly found support in urban areas.

Mulayam is known to be a shrewd politician and had fought many battles. This time he is up against his own son — trained by no other but him.