At a time when Samajwadi Party national president Akhilesh Yadav was in Gujarat to campaign for party candidates, Mulayam Singh Yadav surprised everyone with his statement during a visit to Mainpuri that the Samajwadi Party candidates in Gujarat would be defeated as nobody took Akhilesh seriously.

Samajwadi Party had put up only five candidates for a token presence in the Gujarat polls. Mulayam wanted the party to contest in all the seats, which would have affected the chances of Congress. He is very much against an alliance with Congress. But the party had an alliance with Congress in the UP Assembly polls earlier this year.

After the elections Akhilesh Yadav made it clear that his friendship and good relations with Congress and Rahul Gandhi would continue. Political observers recall how Mulayam Singh Yadav backed out of the alliance with Lalu Yadav and fielded candidates in all the seats to help the BJP.

During his birthday celebrations earlier also Mulayam Singh Yadav had publicly attacked Akhilesh Yadav for the poor performance in the UP elections. He asserted that even after ordering firing on kar sewaks in Ayodhya in 1990 his party had wont more seats than what it got in the Assembly elections in March this year. Mulayam said that Akhilesh was surrounded by leaders who could not win the polls nor could help the party.

Similarly, Mulayam younger brother Shivpal Yadav is working very hard to damage the Samajwadi Party prospects. He is feeling hurt for being ignored by nephew Akhilesh, who has not only sidelined his uncle but also dumped his supporters.

Shivpal Yadav wanted his elder brother to announce the formation of separate party but Mulayam Singh backed out at the eleventh hour. During recent local bodies polls Shivpal Yadav reportedly backed a large number of independent candidates, who won defeating the official candidates. Even in his home district Itawah, especially in Jaswantnagar represented by Shivpal Yadav, official candidates of Samajwadi Party lost while those supported by Shivpal Yadav won. Shocked by this development, the party has taken action against certain leaders in Itawah for working against party candidates.

Mulayam surprised everyone with his statement that he would contest from Mainpuri in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls and not from his present seat Azamgarh. After the differences with his son and confusion in the rank and file, Mulayam now consider Azamgarh to be not a safe to contest. He had contested from Azamgarh and Mainpuri and won from both the seats, but retained Azamgarh.

Now Mulayam wants to return to Mainpuri, which he had represented in the Lok Sabha thrice in the past. Currently this constituency is represented by Taj Pratap Singh Yadav, who is the grand nephew of Mulayam Singh Yadav. Tej Pratap is the son in law of Lalu Yadav and shifted his loyalty to Akhilesh Yadav in the family feud. (IPA Service)