As Shivpal Yadav meets Akhilesh, the Samajwadi Party seems to be trying to ward off a split

The make-or-break move by Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav seems to have forced his father, Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav, to attempt to effect a reconciliation in the outfit. On Thursday, Singh sent his brother Shivpal Yadav to Akhilesh Yadav's home, where the two had a meeting that lasted nearly two hours.

Though it isn't clear what exactly the two warring leaders spoke about, the closed-door meeting took place just as Akhilesh Yadav's supporters began to obtain legal opinions about their options available to them if they decide to form a new party or secure complete hold over the existing one by sidelining the old guard.

“The legal input is being sought to keep ourselves prepared for any eventuality,” said Samajwadi Party leader considered close to Akhilesh. “Nothing is hidden now. Everyone knows that there is an informal split in the party. But no one is certain as to how far this situation will drag on. Gathering legal opinion is necessary so that that we can act quickly, without wasting our precious time, as and when it is needed.”

Uttar Pradesh goes to the polls early next year, making it especially urgent for the party to resolve its dispute.

A virtual split

It still isn't clear why precisely the two factions of the family that dominates the Samajwadi Party have fallen out. But as Scroll.in has reported, the differences have been evident since at least August, when Shivpal Yadav, who is in charge of the Samajwadi Party in Uttar Pradesh, threatened to resign in protest against the land-grabbing and illicit liquor rackets that he allege senior leaders were involved in. The next day, Mulayam Singh Yadav warned that his brother's protests should be heeded, or else the party would be risking a split.

Akhilesh Yadav moved out of his father’s home on October 6, and shifted to the official residence of the chief minister. The two factions have started operating from separate establishments in Lucknow.

In some sections of the press, the older men in the family are being projected as being stuck in the traditional mould of Muslim-Yadav identity politics, while the younger side backing Akhilesh Yadav is advertised as the one demanding "development".

Hectic meetings

Party officials say that Akhilesh Yadav began obtaining legal opinions merely hours after Shivpal Yadav and Mulayam Singh Yadav set up back-to-back meetings of party’s office-bearers and legislators. While Shivpal Yadav has called a meeting of all district presidents of the party on Friday and of the party’s state executive on Saturday, Mulayam Singh Yadav has called a meeting of all MLAs, ministers and MPs on October 24.

The chief minister’s move to seek legal counsel introduced an element of urgency to the controversy and forced Mulayam to go hurriedly for reconciliation, officials said.

The patriarch, who was in Delhi on Thursday, phoned his brother Shivpal Yadav and asked him to “sort out the differences” between him and Akhilesh Yadav, who had on Wednesday announced his decision to embark on a Samajwadi Vikas Rath Yatra, the party’s pre-poll campaign, from November 3.