Akhilesh vs Mulayam: EC may give two sides new name to contest elections

NEW DELHI: The Election Commission will soon take a view based on precedents and set principles on the dispute over the cycle poll symbol, on which two factions in the Samajwadi Party have staked claims.

• “The commission, as per the symbol order, while keeping in mind precedents and set principles followed till now, will examine the documents before us and will take an appropriate decision at the right time,” Chief Election Commissioner Nasim Zaidi told reporters.
• The two factions -- one headed by Samajwadi Party patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav and the other by his son Akhilesh Yadav, also Uttar Pradesh's chief minister -- have staked claim on the party's poll symbol and have presented their case before the Election Commission.
• Sources in the Commission said it will follow paragraph 15 of the Election Symbols (Reservation & Allotment) Order, 1968, to proceed on the dispute. It gives power to the Commission “in relation to splinter groups or rival sections of a recognised political party”.
• On Wednesday, the Commission said assembly elections in the state will be held in seven phases beginning February 11.
• Zaidi said that, in the last two-three days, the Commission has received representations - one from Mulayam and the other from Ram Gopal Yadav and Akhilesh Yadav. On Tuesday evening, a detailed document was presented by Ram Gopal Yadav.
• The factional war in Uttar Pradesh's ruling party reached the Election Commission a day after Mulayam was deposed from the post of Samajwadi Party president by the group headed by his son Akhilesh.
• The split in the SP was formalised on Tuesday with the Akhilesh camp approaching the Commission to assert the party is “actually” headed by the Chief Minister now and not its founder Mulayam, who had visited the Commission a day before to lay claim on the 'cycle' symbol.
• Hours after his camp staked claim over the party and its election symbol 'cycle', Akhilesh drove to his father's residence and was with him for over two hours, leading to speculation about patch-up efforts which was discounted by the Chief Minister's camp saying it was “too late”.
• Leaders from the Akhilesh faction -- Ram Gopal Yadav, Naresh Agarwal and Kiranmoy Nanda -- had met the Election Commissioners on Tuesday morning to stake claim over the party and its election symbol.
• With the rival factions staking claims over the party and its symbol, the ball is in the Commission's court. As an interim measure, the poll panel may freeze the cycle symbol and ask the two factions to contest on new symbols.
• EC may also give the two sides a new name to contest the polls till the time a final decision is taken on the real 'ownership' of the SP and its symbol.