The feudal family is feuding and Narendra Modi could well be laughing all the way to the polling booth.
The reference, of course, is to the ongoing clash of egos within the Mulayam Singh Yadav family of Uttar Pradesh that has pitted Chief Minister-son Akhilesh Yadav against his uncle Shivpal with the patriarch, for once, tending to side with his younger brother at the expense of his progeny. This in itself is quite unheard of in the Hindi heartland of India where sons are the most precious and get precedence over all other relations.
Mulayam Singh Yadav has built his Samajwadi Party (SP) around his extended clan over more than four decades and his is considered the state’s first family. Apart from being chief minister three times and India’s defence minister for nearly two years in the latter half of the 1990s, Mulayam had anointed Akhilesh, born to his first wife Malti Devi, as chief minister following the 2012 assembly elections. He also has four others from the family in the Lok Sabha and another, cousin Ram Gopal Yadav, in the Rajya Sabha. Goes without saying that Mulayam is chairman of the party since its inception in 1992.
For someone with that sort of CV and at the age of 76, you might want to believe that petty-mindedness cannot be associated with Mulayam Singh Yadav. But that’s because you don’t know what titles and positions can do in places like UP and Bihar. Almost every political leader in these parts has his own private army of followers who will not only not brook any criticism of their leader but will perforce mention his name only through references of his stature in the party or government.
If, for example, a leader had become a minister even for a brief while, he will from then on be referred to only as “Minister Sa’ab” although he may have had to quit the post in shame over some scandal or the other or had been thrown out for any number of reasons. Thus Dharam Pal Yadav, better known as D P Yadav, now serving life term for murder, was once a minister in the Mulayam cabinet in UP and even today is known as “Minister Sa’ab” to his faithful followers. Mention the word “Netaji” (leader) in UP and everyone will know you are talking about none other than Mulayam Singh Yadav. He is “Netaji” even to Akhilesh Yadav.
But if reports are to be believed, “Netaji” is angry with his son for not giving him due regard at a state function. Apparently Mulayam Singh Yadav was not invited to the inauguration of Ala Hazrat Haj House in the Delhi suburb of Ghaziabad. That was bad enough. What was worse was while Akhilesh and his senior minister Azam Khan were both present and had their larger-than-life pictures displayed all over the venue, Mulayam’s photo was conspicuous by its absence.
Mulayam loyalists objected to this and even raised slogans to that effect. They complained to their leader who reportedly saw it as an insult to his stature. What’s in a picture for a man like Mulayam, you may ask. But then, as I said, in UP every detail has to be observed when it concerns the leaders.
Mulayam also looked sympathetically at Shivpal Yadav’s efforts to bring Amar Singh on to the SP high table. Akhilesh Yadav is said to be not much in favour of providing Singh too much space within the party as he had once left the party and even worked to defeat it in earlier elections. Not only has Mulayam forced Akhilesh to restore Shivpal Yadav’s portfolio in the state cabinet after he had submitted his resignation in a huff, but he has promoted Amar Singh as the party’s general secretary. 
“This is not a family feud, but a political dispute,” says Akhilesh trying to put up a brave face. But when family politics is party politics and vice versa, when the lines between family and government are so blurred, can there be any distinction between feud and dispute and the place where they are played out? It may be a family matter, but when family is what matters most, what difference can it be from a government matter?
That said, this family/government feud may not be such a bad thing after all. Akhilesh Yadav is certainly the young face of the party and for the past four-and-a-half years he has been assiduously striving to change the party narrative from patronage and pampering of loyalists to one of development for the state as a whole. To this end he had taken up a series of infrastructure projects which are starting to change the image of the state.
But the old guard is resisting change and Mulayam, too, is not too keen to let go, even if it is his own son who will inherit his chair. But as with everything else, change is the only constant and the elder Yadavs will have to yield place.
The feud also reflects the changing landscape of dynastic politics in India. More than half-a-dozen major states have been under family entrepreneurship at one time or another. If the first family of Uttar Pradesh can engage in a public joust, then those is Bihar (Lalu Yadav and sons), Andhra Pradesh (Chandrababu Naidu and N T Rama Rao’s family), Karnataka (Deve Gowda and sons), Tamil Nadu (Karunanidhi and sons and daughter and nephews) and Maharashtra (the Thackeray cousins) can all follow suit in the not-too-distant future. 
This can only be seen as a positive development because what it portents is the growth of inner party democracy. There is bound to be disputes when two ideas clash, but the very fact that there is room for such a clash shows the feudalistic mindset of party patriarchs is slowly yielding place to dissent and discussion. This will nurture non-dynasty members of these parties to air their opinions which means fresh ideas are bound to be thrown up. 
But for the present the dispute within the SP so close to the crucial assembly elections will only help Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) which is one of the three main contenders in the state. With Mayawati facing revolt from several sections of her Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) - even her personal bodyguard of 15 years has left her - the BJP could well emerge as the leading party in a post-election coalition government. Victory in UP will be the icing on the remarkable political cake that Modi has been baking over the past two-and-a-half years. 

Congress’ UP plans going nowhere

Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi is in the thick of engaging with UP voters through a month-long road trip. The 2,500km journey, dubbed ‘Kisan Mahayatra’, has been in the news for all wrong reasons though. 
First the ‘kisans’ (farmers) ran away with the ‘charpoys’ (light-framed beds made of cotton or plastic strings) on which they were invited to sit and listen to Gandhi speak. Then one of these ‘kisans’ threw a shoe at Gandhi at one of the rallies. Except for a couple of occasions when the organisers promised attractive remunerations, attendance has been sparse. 
This was not wholly unexpected because except for their two pocket boroughs of Rae Bareli and Amethi, the Gandhi family charisma has long since stopped attracting UP voters. What is worse is Shiela Dixit, the Congress Party’s chosen chief ministerial candidate for next year’s election, is already showing signs of fatigue and is spending most of her time in Delhi where she was three times chief minister. 
Reports have emerged that Rahul Gandhi is not very happy with the way Prashant Kishor, who masterminded Modi’s 2014 campaign and then successfully planned Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s return to power, has chalked out the Congress strategy for UP. Kishor, who was entrusted with the job nearly six months ago, had once been seen as the man who would take all decisions related to the assembly elections. Dixit as the party’s chief ministerial candidate was Kishor’s idea.
But now Gandhi has directed that Kishor will restrict himself to planning the party’s campaign while important decisions like picking of candidates will be left to party seniors.
Problem is, Congress is a dead horse in UP and there is no point flogging it. But then who will tell Gandhi this?
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