Akhilesh Yadav to Amend Party Constitution to Close Exit Routes for Uncle Shivpal​

New Delhi: The Samajwadi Party at its National Convention at Agra later this week will amend the party constitution to finally settle festering leadership issues and snuff out any potential rebellion against Akhilesh Yadav.

It is proposed that the convention — the highest decision-making body of the party — will pass a resolution to make changes in the party constitution to extend its president’s tenure from three to five years.

The amendments once passed, would ensure the next round of Lok Sabha and UP Assembly polls will be held under Akhilesh’s leadership. Yadav scion, as the president, thus will be the final signing authority in ticket distribution for all the elections.

The move is aimed at mobilizing party cadre ahead of the UP local body polls and thereafter general elections in 2019. By empowering Akhilesh as the sole arbiter in ticket distribution, the party seems to be sending a clear and categorical message to rebel faction led by Akhilesh’s uncle and Mulayam Singh Yadav’s younger brother Shivpal Yadav.

The chacha-bhateeja fell out last year ahead of the UP Assembly polls. Amid souring family ties, Akhilesh Yadav convened an emergency meeting of the national convention on the new-years-day to replace father Mulayam Singh Yadav as the national president of the Samajwadi Party. During this prolonged family feud, Mulayam Singh Yadav has been backing brother Shivpal. But at the same time, Akhilesh has, if anything, cemented his position in the party, while the patriarch has held on to his brother.

That has left little space for Shivpal to maneuver an independent political line for himself — both within and outside of SP. In a party cloistered around a family and stilted by a dominant and upwardly mobile caste group, any attempt to challenge the patriarch to form a separate outfit is fraught with immense risk.

Shivpal Yadav, despite being completely marginalized has therefore waited for the right moment and opportunity to strike back. At the SP national convention, Akhilesh Yadav by amending the party constitution will attempt to close all exit routes for the beleaguered uncle.