The Akhilesh Yadav camp is in a tizzy. The Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister finds himself in a quagmire fashioned by his father the redoubtable Mulayam Singh Yadav, who took complete control of the Samajwadi Party when he announced the names of 325 candidates, none of which are Akhilesh supporters. This is essentially a fight for control of the party post 2017 polls and it seems the father is bent on stamping his authority on the party. The future of Mulayam and Akhilesh depends not on their machinations, but on whether they can win at the polls. The infighting in the party is bound to affect its performance in the forthcoming polls, unless Akhilesh surrenders to the diktat of his father. This family feud has reduced the chance of a poll tie-up between the SP and Congress, which is now waiting for the chief minister to make his move. The BJP, which won 71 of the 80 seats in Uttar Pradesh in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, could not have asked for a better deal. A combined anti-BJP front would have been a formidable adversary. Now, all that seems to have gone up in smoke leaving the BJP with a clearer path to Lucknow.
