Polls apart in UP: Mulayam disowns Kalyan after rout

The SP chief’s about-turn — in the run-up to the Lok Sabha polls,Yadav openly courted Kalyan — is being seen as a desperate damage-control exercise after the humiliating performance of his party in the recent bypolls to 11 Assembly seats in UP where it drew a blank.

Dimple lost to Raj Babbar of the Congress by a margin of over 85,000 votes in Firozabad Lok Sabha seat,which was won and vacated by her husband Akhilesh Yadav barely a few months ago. The seat was considered an SP pocket borough.

On Saturday,Mulayam tried to downplay his “friendship” with the former BJP leader,which led to the exit of several senior Muslim leaders from the SP in the run-up to the last Lok Sabha polls in May this year. “Kalyan Singh was never a part of the SP and the party had nothing to do with him,” Mulayam said today.

While Mulayam’s handshake with Kalyan alienated Muslims from his party,the former BJP leader known as the architect of the Babri Masjid demolition could not help the SP corner votes from the Lodha community either. The Firozabad Lok Sabha seat and Etawah Assembly segment have a sizeable number of voters from the Lodh community to which Kalyan belongs.

The SP president also downplayed suggestions that Kalyan’s son Rajbir was already in the party. SP’s tallest Muslim leader Azam Khan had bitterly opposed any ties with Kalyan but he was expelled from the party after the Lok Sabha polls in May. Mulayam,however,refused to admit his friendship with Kalyan harmed the party. “We did not lose due to the kinship with Kalyan,but the friendship of the Congress let us down,’ he said.

“Even Indira Gandhi could not demolish the Samajwadi movement,so how can they (Congress) do it,” he said.

Yadav announced a one-day statewide demonstration in Uttar Pradesh on November 16 against inflation and low price of sugarcane and other agriculture produce being offered to the farmers by the state and the Central governments.

Maya may expand Cabinet today
Chief Minister Mayawati is likely to expand her ministry tomorrow and induct a few new faces. Sources said although there is no mention about the oath-taking ceremony in the CM’s official programme,top officials have been asked to remain ready for the ministry expansion. “Five to seven MLAs may be accommodated in the ministry,” sources said,adding state BSP president Swami Prasad Maurya,who has won from Padrauna,might become a minister.