EC asks Akhilesh, Mulayam to reply on each others petitions by January 9
NEW DELHI : The Election Commission has asked Akhilesh Yadav and Mulayam Singh Yadav to reply by January 9 on each other’s petitions filed before it claiming party and poll symbol, reports said on Thursday.
While Mulayam staked claim over the party symbol ‘cycle’ on Monday, Akhilesh’s camp headed by Ram Gopal Yadav approached the EC claiming they were the “real” Samajwadi Party.
Ram Gopal Yadav has maintained that Akhilesh Yadav commanded most of the Samajwadi lawmakers’ support and that they deserved to get the party election symbol.
Chief Election Commissioner Nasim Zaidi on Wednesday said any question about a possible freeze on the Samajwadi Party’s election symbol ‘cycle’ was “hypotheical” and the poll panel would examine the matter before taking any decision.
“Any query on freezing of Samajwadi Party poll symbol ‘cycle’ is hypothetical right now,” Zaidi told reporters.The faction headed by CM Akhilesh on Sunday removed Mulayam as party chief and appointing him in his place at a convention in which the group claimed support of the majority of legislators and district units.
On a day of face paced developments, the two sides engaged in mutual recriminatory expulsions with the convention called by Ram Gopal Yadav removing Akhilesh’s warring uncle Shivpal Yadav as state party chief, and showing the door to “outsider” Amar Singh, who has been blamed for the feud in the Yadav clan.
Mualyam retorted by again expelling his cousin Ram Gopal for six years along with national vice president Kiranmoy Nanda, who chaired the convention, and general secretary Naresh Agarwal for taking part in it.
43-year-old Akhilesh was “unanimously” crowned the SP president as Ram Gopal moved a proposal to make Mulayam, the founder president of SP, the party patron at the convention, where the CM’s faction claimed that over 200 of the party’s 229 MLAs, around 30 MLCs, besides majority of office bearers of district units were present.
The convention also authorised Akhilesh to constitute a national executive, parliamentary board and various state units, as required, and inform the Election Commission of the developments at the earliest.
