As the feud within the Samajwadi Party refuses to die down, senior SP leader Ram Gopal Yadav has reportedly gone to meet the officials of the Election Commission to stake their claim for the party symbol ‘Cycle’. Ram Gopal Yadav is reportedly being accompanied by senior leader Naresh Agarwal, who was recently expelled by party supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav.
Akhilesh Yadav is our Nat’l Pres;Going to EC today & will tell we’re Samajwadi party & symbol ‘cycle’ must be given to us: Naresh Agrawal pic.twitter.com/5KDOYeeWdd
— ANI (@ANI_news) January 3, 2017
Earlier, Mulayam Singh Yadav, and senior leaders Amar Singh, Shivpal Singh Yadav and Jaya Prada met the Election Commission over the same issue.
The ball is now in EC’s court to decide as to which side could finally stake claim on the party’s symbol. There are speculations that the warring father son-duo of Akhilesh-Mulayam is all set to take this battle over cycle symbol to the court.
Speaking over the issue, SY Qureshi, former Chief Election Commissioner of India had said that probably the cycle symbol will be frozen and both factions will be given ad hoc names and symbols as polls are close.
“Cycle symbol is ours,” Mulayam had asserted. “No one can accuse me of wrongdoing. I have never indulged in corruption or betrayed anyone. Cycle symbol is ours,” he said.
(Courtesy: YouTube/India TV)
He also asked party cadres to focus on winning the assembly elections likely to be announced any day now. The SP convention has also been postponed which was scheduled for January 5.
Shivpal gave no reasons for the abrupt postponement of the party convention, but according to reports the Mulayam camp was apprehensive of a poor turnout compared to the massive gathering at the “convention” held by Ram Gopal Yadav on January 1. The convention was declared illegal and unconstitutional by Mulayam.
