SP headed for split, defiant Akhilesh releases own list of 235 candidates for UP polls

LUCKNOW: The turf war in Samajwadi Party has worsened ahead of Uttar Pradesh assembly elections due early next year, with an unhappy Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav releasing a list of his 235 candidates on Thursday. Akhilesh’s list includes the names of 171 sitting MLAs and 64 new faces. Chief Minister's rebellious move came after he held a meeting with party legislators who have not found place in the list of 325 declared candidates announced by party supremo Mulayam Singh yesterday. Unhappy with the list released by his father and SP supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav yesterday, the Chief Minister held a meeting with his loyalists, including MLAs, who have been denied tickets. These candidates were likely to contest on a separate symbol, other than SP's 'Cycle' symbol, paving the way for a wide split in the party grappling with dissensions and unprecedented feud at a time when the crucial polls were knocking at the door. Today's showdown, the worst in the last few months, reached a flashpoint after Mulayam publicly snubbed his son by announcing a list of candidates that created bitterness in the pro-CM camp, prompting the upset chief minister to take up the matter with the SP supremo to convey his strong displeasure over the choice of names. "The Chief Minister called us. He instructed us to go to our respective constituencies and prepare for the elections," Indal Singh, SP MLAs from Malihabad, said after Akhilesh today met legislators denied ticket. On a day of hectic political developments, Akhilesh met the disgruntled MLAs at his 5-Kalidas Marg residence in the morning and drove straight to Mulayam's residence to convey the belligerent mood of those who did not get re-nomination. Akhilesh was again closetted with his close confidants soon afterwards to decide the next course of action, while Mulayam summoned Shivpal to gauge the mood of rebels. "We will go to our constituencies, work hard, and again make Akhilesh our CM," said another MLA, Pawan Pandey, whose ticket was cut. Pandey, although expelled from SP, continues to be a minister in the Akhilesh government. "We will contest the upcoming elections, come what may," said a defiant MLA Atul Pradhan. "The Chief Minister has done a lot for the development of the state and we will contest and win in his name," he said. In a new twist to the day-long high drama, Mulayam's cousin and SP General Secretary Ramgopal Yadav said many in the party do not want to see Akhilesh as chief minister again. "But, the fact remains that people of the state want him back as CM," he claimed. The factional feud in the Samajwadi Party came out in the open a day after Mulayam declared candidates for 325 of the 403 Assembly seats in Uttar Pradesh and ruled out projecting Akhilesh as the Chief Ministerial candidate.