Yadav Camps Draw New Battle Lines Over Ticket Distribution

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav and Samajwadi Party (SP) state president Shivpal Yadav have drawn new battle lines over ticket distribution ahead of the Uttar Pradesh elections.

Akhilesh Yadav has submitted his own list of candidates for the elections against Shivpal’s list. While rejecting several of Shivpal’s choices, he questioned their competence and chances to win the elections, much to the ire of his father, Mulayam Singh Yadav, who achieved some momentary conciliation at a party meeting in October, where he had asserted that it is he who will decide who will be given what responsibility and be placed at what position.

The short-lived hope of reconciliation between the Yadav camps has ended with the party slipping into yet another controversy. The Yadav camp is so engrossed in the infighting that the Samajwadi Party appears to be unable to even exploit the anti-demonetisation sentiment in the ongoing election campaign in Uttar Pradesh – the central theme of its poll strategy.