Akhilesh Yadav allotted `cycle` symbol by EC; UP CM seeks father Mulayam's blessings

Samajwadi Party founder Mulayam Singh Yadav and his son Akhilesh Yadav had been asserting their respective claims over the party's election symbol 'cycle'.

Lucknow: Dealing a huge blow to Mulayam Singh Yadav, the Election Commission on Monday recognised the faction led by Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav as the Samajwadi Party and allotted it the 'cycle' symbol.

The EC verdict comes as a major boost to Akhilesh Yadav ahead of UP Elections 2017.

The Commission's announcement triggered wild celebrations by Akhilesh supporters in Lucknow. Soon after the EC pronounced its verdict, Akhilesh went to meet father Mulayam Singh at his residence and sought his blessings. It was not known exactly what transpired in the father-son meeting. 

Taking to Twitter afterwards, Akhilesh posted a picture of him meeting his father along with two other pictures of his aide Ramgopal Yadav with the caption "Cycle aage chalti jayegi...aage badhti jaayegi" (The cycle will keep moving ahead).

The EC decided in favour of the Akhilesh-led faction after hearing both parties through their lawyers for over five hours on January 13.

In its order that was reserved on Friday, the EC noted that while the Akhilesh faction submitted individual affidavits of the members of the legislature and organisational wings in support of his claim of the majority support, the Mulayam faction failed to provide any such affidavit despite repeated calls by the poll panel.

The Election Commission, in a letter dated January 04, had asked both factions to file affidavits in support of their claims, which it reiterated on January 10.

The Akhilesh faction claimed the support of -- and backed it with individual affidavits -- 205 (out of 228) MLAs, 56 (out of 68) MLCs, 15 (out of 24) MPs, 28 (out of 46) national executive members and 4,400 (out of 5,731) national convention delegates.

"On the other hand, Shri Mulayam Singh Yadav, with his reply dated January 9, 2017, did not file any affidavit (except his own affidavit) of any Member of Parliament or state legislature or of any delegate," the EC noted in its order.

"Nor did he (Mulayam Singh) make a claim of any support among the aforesaid category of members for his group, in spite of the fact that he had been specifically directed to file all such affidavits in support of his claim," it added.

The EC said "a mere look at the figures given above" would suffice to conclude that "Akhilesh Yadav enjoys overwhelming majority support, both among legislators and organisational wing of the party."

"As a logical consequence of the above finding and applying the test of majority approved by the Supreme Court in the case of Sadiq Ali and consistently applied by the Commission thereafter in all cases of disputes in recognised political parties arising before it from time to time for determination in terms of para 15 of the Symbols Order, the Commission hereby answers the issue number 2 by holding that the group led by Shri Akhilesh Yadav is the Samajwadi Party and is entitled to use its name and its reserved symbol 'Bicycle' for the purposes of Election Symbols (Reservation and Allotment Order, 1968)," the EC said in its 46-page order.

It also mentioned that while the counsel for the Mulayam group wanted to make a mountain of a molehill by referring to a typographical mistake in the affidavits of the Akhilesh group, the counsel had no reply when it was pointed out that its leader Amar Singh had said in the concluding para of his affidavit that "I refute my point on the illegibility of January 1, 2017, convention of Samajwadi Party and unconstitutionality of their resolution thereby”.

The verdict by the three-member Election Commission headed by Nasim Zaidi came on the eve of the filing of nominations when parties will have to give the requisite forms authorising use of the symbol to contest the elections.

Ramgopal Yadav, a close confidant of Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav, had also pointed out to the Commission that no meeting of the party's national executive had been held since June 25, 2014, which was a significant violation of the party's constitution.

According to the party constitution's Section 15(10), the meeting of the national executive is required to be called by the party president at least once in two months.

He further submitted that as per Section 20 of the party constitution, the seven-member central parliamentary board is the authority to select candidates for elections to the state legislature and Parliament.

However, for the current election to the state Legislative Assembly, party president Mulayam Singh Yadav "declared the candidates without convening the meeting of the parliamentary board even once, in violation of the party constitution".

He said that it was "in the above background that the applicant called the special national convention on January 1, 2017".

"As the national President did not attend the convention, the national Vice President chaired the convention as per the provisions of the party constitution," Ramgopal Yadav submitted to the poll panel.

Welcoming the decision, SP general secretary Ramgopal Yadav, Akhilesh's uncle and the main strategist of his group, expressed the hope that a grand secular alliance will be formed to fight the elections, an apparent reference to a tie-up with Congress and some other outfits.

A beaming Ram Gopal Yadav urged the people of Uttar Pradesh to vote Akhilesh Yadav back to power in the coming election.

"This is a just decision," he told the media. "The Election Commission will get the blessings of crores of people of Uttar Pradesh."

Interestingly, the EC announcement came hours after Akhilesh supporters put up his brand new name plate at the SP headquarters that read "Akhilesh Yadav, Party President" strategically positioned directly under his father's nameplate which mentions Mulayam as "Party President".

The seven-phased polls in the state begin on February 11.

The Samajwadi Party formally split on January 1 when Ram Gopal Yadav, as the party's General Secretary, called the national convention of the party where Akhilesh Yadav was declared the party chief in place of his father Mulayam Singh.

Subsequently, both factions then petitioned the Election Commission to allot it the 'cycle' symbol.

Party founder Mulayam Singh Yadav, who has lost the support of the majority in the party, had been desperate to hold on to the symbol which he picked long ago.

(With Agency inputs)