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Mulayam's U-turn: Shrewd strategy or political compulsions? (News Analysis)
Lucknow, Aug 12
The wily Yadav from Uttar Pradesh has done it once again. Never known
for his political loyalties and infamous for being a political
grasshopper, Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Mulayam Singh Yadav's rebuke to
the Congress has taken even his loyalists here by surprise.
Breaking
ranks with the Congress, which was spearheading a face-off with the
Narendra Modi government at the centre and stalling the functioning of
parliament Mulayam, his close aides say, has done so both for political
reasons and "uncomfortabe compulsions."
While the
wrestler-turned-teacher-turned-leader has taken many a U-turn in the
past, this time his volte face has come as a big breather to the
beseiged Modi government. A close aide who did not want to be named said
that while Mulayam wanted to come across as a "serious Democrat" after
the Congress continued effort to steal a march by leading the protests,
Mulayam had for now gone 'mulayam' (soft) on the government for some
compulsions that may go beyond politics.
One major reason,
associates say, is the deepening crisis on the law and order front in
his home state Uttar Pradesh, where his son Akhilesh Yadav is leading
the government. Faced with problems from all sides, Yadav senior is in
no mood to "open too many fronts," with the centre, opine insiders at
the 5, Vikramaditya Marg house of the SP chief, also known as the
'Kothi' to the faithful.
Additionally, there are many
infrastructure related issues like roads, highways, power that need a
sync between the state and Delhi. The chief minister has has often
complained in the recent past that the centre was not expediting
permissions on many vital projects and thus putting roadblocks in the
state's development.
After much rancour and delay, the centre had
recently okayed the ambitious Lucknow Metro Rail project, thus paving
way for investments something which is close to Akhilesh Yadav's heart.
Other than this, the ongoing tussle between senior SP leaders and the
Raj Bhawan is something which worries the elder Yadav a lot.
With
Governor Ram Naik, a former union petroleum minister, holding back
approval on many issues like nominated list of members of legislative
council and the appointment of Lokayukta, Mulayam needs the centre to
cajole the BJP veteran to mellow down, sources say.
The 'deal
clincher', however, seems to be the CBI probe into the former Noida
chief engineer Yadav Singh, considered close to the Yadavs. The tainted
engineer was not only reinstated after being suspended but also
promoted by the Akhilesh Yadav government. The Allahabad High Court has
ordered the CBI to probe him.
The SP government recently filed an
SLP in the Supreme Court to reject the CBI probe but was snubbed.
Sources in the BJP say they would use the Yadav Singh case "proactively
and electorally" in days to come, much to the chagrin of the state's
ruling party. "Our stand on the Yadav Singh matter is consistent and we
will not relent on the issue" state BJP spokesman Vijay Bahadur Pathak
told IANS.
Strategists of the party, however, said they were
"game to a carrot and stick policy" towards the Samajwadi Party. With a
huge mandate in the Lok Sabha, the BJP wants to publicly maintain a
distance from the Samajwadi Party, while behind the scenes it needs the
SP to help it pass vital legislations in parliament. Congress leaders
say the bonhomie between the saffron camp and the SP will be short lived
as neither "side trusts the other". But for now, the ruling party at
the centre will grasp the hand stretched out by the veteran leader.
(Mohit Dubey can be contacted at [email protected])