Amid fight for 'cycle', SP chief Mulayam says will contest against son Akhilesh

On a day when the Election Commission is due to give an interim order on a dispute over party symbol 'cycle' between warring factions of the ruling Samajwadi Party in Uttar Pradesh, party patriarch Mulayam Singh said on Monday that he will contest against his son Akhilesh if he does not fall in line.

Lucknow: On a day when the Election Commission is due to give an interim order on a raging dispute over party symbol 'cycle' between warring factions of the ruling Samajwadi Party, its chief Mulayam Singh Yadav said on Monday that he will contest against his son Akhilesh in the upcoming assembly polls in Uttar Pradesh if he does not fall in line.

"Akhilesh has turned Muslims against the SP. He has done a great damage to the party," he said while addressing a press conference in state capital . 

''I am trying my best to save the party and 'cycle', and if he (Akhilesh) doesn't listen then I will fight against him,'' Mulayam said.

I will seek people’s support to fight against Akhilesh. He is hobnobbing with rivals, the SP veteran added.

Indicating that he will not give up his stake on party symbol 'cycle', the ageing SP leader stated that he is ready for a battle in the court over it.

The remarks from the SP veteran came at a time when the Election Commission is likely to announce its decision to settle dispute in Samajwadi Party (SP) over control its election symbol, 'cycle'.

SP founder Mulayam Singh Yadav and his son and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav have been asserting their respective claims over the party's election symbol.

Meanwhile, SP general secretary Amar Singh – a key figure in the ongoing dispute between the father and the son – had left for London for two and a half months, said reports.

In a terse statement before departure, Singh said that he was "undergoing treatment in London but was summoned due to the developments here, now going back to complete my treatment".

Interestingly, during over the last one week, as the warring factions took the fight to the election commission laying claims for the symbol Amar Singh was conspicuous by his absence. 

Mulayam on the day of hearing at the commission was accompanied instead by his brother Shivpal Yadav and his old time aide and former Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ambika Chawdhary.