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Samajwadi Party risks losing their elections symbol 'Cycle' if rival factions stake claim

‘Cycle’, the Samajwadi Party symbol, faces the threat of being frozen before the Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls if rival factions stake claim to it in the coming days. The group headed by Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav has already authorised him to constitute a national executive, parliamentary board and various state units, as required, and inform the Election Commission of the developments at the earliest.

Sources in the Akhilesh faction said they will approach the EC if the group head by Mulayam Singh Yadav goes to the poll panel.

However, observers believe that it will be Akhilesh’s faction which will have to go to the EC for staking claim over the symbol because on the commission’s records it would be Mulayam Singh Yadav and other office bearers who would find a place. Should Akhilesh stake a claim for the symbol, then the commission would have to give notice to the other side and go through the process of hearing both the factions before deciding one way or the other. In case, experts feel, the EC is not able to come to a decision as to which side should get the symbol for the elections then it could exercise the option of freezing the SP symbol so that neither side has the advantage.

On a day of fast-changing developments, warring factions led by Mulayam Singh Yadav and son Akhilesh Yadav today “expelled” from Samajwadi Party senior leaders owing allegiance to each other in tit-for-tat actions.

It began this morning with the “emergency national convention” of Samajwadi Party where Ram Gopal Yadav proposed resolutions for expelling Mulayam’s long-time associate Amar Singh from the party and ousting the SP chief’s brother Shivpal from the post of state unit president.

Not to take things lying down in the fight for supremacy, Mulayam later held parliamentary board meeting after which expulsion of his cousin Ram Gopal Yadav was announced, just a day after he was taken back in the SP after his earlier expulsion for six days declared on Friday.

Ram Gopal had been expelled on Friday, along with Akhilesh, from the party for six years but the decision was revoked a day later.

The parliamentary board upheld the expulsion of Ram Gopal from the party for six years, Mulayam Singh said in a letter released for the press.

Mulayam, who had declared the “national convention” as “unconstitutional” and warned of action against those taking part in it, cracked whip in the evening and expelled national vice president Kiranmoy Nanda and general secretary Naresh Agarwal from the party for participating in the meet convened by Ram Gopal.

In a letter, Mulayam, in the capacity of “Samajwadi Party president”, said that Nanda took part in ’emergency national representatives’ convention “which is not only unconstitutional but also amounts to anti-party activity”.

At Ram Gopal’s convention, Naresh Uttam Patel was named as new state unit chief in place of Shivpal.

Source: dnaindia.com