Rediff Logo News Banner Ads Find/Feedback/Site Index
HOME | NEWS | REPORT
January 20, 1998

COMMENTARY
SPECIALS
INTERVIEWS
CAPITAL BUZZ
REDIFF POLL
DEAR REDIFF
THE STATES
YEH HAI INDIA!
ARCHIVES



Mulayam goes around winning friends and influencing people for the ultimate job

Sharat Pradhan in Lucknow

E-Mail this story to a friend Whether one likes it or not, Samajwadi Party chief and Defence Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav is in a belligerent mood. Significantly, much of his anger is directed against Prime Minister Inder Kumar Gujral and the Janata Dal. Sure enough, a shrewd politician like Mulayam Singh can foresee the dwindling fate of the Janata Dal, and evidently has made up his mind to have nothing whatsoever to do with a sinking ship.

How to ease himself out of the UF bond without getting blamed for tearing the coalition apart is Mulayam Singh's immediate worry. His second concern is to keep the doors open for a dialogue with the Congress, despite the growing antipathy between it and the UF. It is a tightrope walk, but with the PM's chair as Mulayam Singh's ultimate target, even this does not seem insurmountable.

Thus, the dark, dimunitive man who until a few years ago could not comprehend anything beyond his hometown, Etawah, has begun to look beyond his horizons. And as a pragmatic politician, he is trying to do away with every hurdle in his path.

Though he had first found reason to criticise Gujral when the latter resisted UP Governor Romesh Bhandari's recommendation (evidently on Mulayam Singh's advice) for imposition of President's rule in the state, after the BSP broke out of its alliance with the BJP, the cause for the Raksha Mantri's chagrin has worsened now. And that arises out of Gujral's decision to contest the Jalandhar Lok Sabha seat -- with the support of the Akali Dal, an ally of Mulayam Singh's worst political foe, the BJP.

"Now tell me, can I go to campaign from Jalandhar?" he asked partymen in Lucknow last week, "would you all want me to go to Jalandhar?" Predictably, the reply was a loud chorus, ''No, no.'' Inspired by the expected reply, he went on to make further digs at Gujral, commenting, "Just imagine, someone without ten votes behind him becoming the country's prime minister." Applause followed by cries of "desh ka pradhan mantri kaisa ho, Mulayam Singh jaisa ho" (We need a prime minister like Mulayam Singh).

Such rhetoric has been audible at several of Mulayam Singh's recent rallies. At a recent meeting in Lakhimpuri Kheri, about 250 km from Lucknow, while kicking off his election campaign, Mulayam Singh told the crowd: "We have been humiliated, not once but a number of times by leaders of the United Front. They are all liars who seek to impress upon all and sundry that they have sacrificed more than the Samajwadi Party for the cause of secularism."

While he consciously refrains from making any direct claim to the prime minister's chair, he makes it a point to tell people how he sacrificed the prime ministership that could have been his for the asking after Deve Gowda's ouster last April.

"I could have easily become prime minister if I wanted, but I sacrificed that chair to maintain the unity and integrity of the United Front, and those very people are blaming me for causing harm to the UF," he said.

Mulayam Singh was referring to former prime minister Deve Gowda's remarks against him. According to Deve Gowda, "Mulayam has done everything to destabilise the Janata Dal in UP," adding, "if Mulayam Singh thinks he can fight the BJP by demolishing the Janata Dal let him go ahead."

Every time Mulayam Singh persuades a big fish to plunge into his party pool, he ensures that his claim to the country's top chair is put forth by one of his deputies.

Mulayam Singh's Man Friday Amar Singh or his cousin Ram Gopal Yadav never miss an opportunity to tell their audiences, "By increasing the tally of the Samajwadi Party, we can ensure the United Front's return to power, and remember that Mulayam Singh alone would be in a position to lead the United Front this time."

Mulayam Singh makes no bones about why he is concentrating much of his energies in UP. "Some parties may have managed to get recognition as national parties simply because they have been formalised by the Election Commission in a couple of smaller states like Kashmir or Tripura, etc. But for me, national level recognition can come in real terms only if one is able to establish one's party in UP and in Bihar."

That is why he is in no mood to give away more than 10 seats to the Janata Dal in UP from where he could send 16 members to the dissolved Lok Sabha, while he has signed off a deal with Jagannath Mishra's breakaway Congress in Bihar.

The shrewd political juggler that he is, Mulayam Singh is aware that he can build up his party's score only by adding a couple of more seats from these two states. While he is targeting 50 per cent of the 85 Lok Sabha seats from UP, he is hoping to grab 20 per cent of Bihar's 54 seats together with Mishra. "If we end up with a figure around 40, the SP would have every chance of leading the UF government in an expected hung Parliament once again," party leaders say.

Besides UP and Bihar, Mulayam Singh is also hopeful of cornering a few seats from far-off states. He has hopes particularly from Bombay, from where he has already announced the candidature of Tushar Gandhi, the Mahatma's great grandson. Thanks to Raj Babbar, the cinestar and SP member of Rajya Sabha who won Tushar over, Mulayam Singh can now boast of offering a political platform to the "most neglected family of this country."

Having struck a rapprochement with his old political foe, Congress leader Balram Singh Yadav, who crossed over to the SP, Mulayam Singh is busy building a wider base for himself . And with Balram Singh beside him, he has nothing to worry about in his home region of Etawah Mainpuri, where the traditional feud between the two Yadav titans has remained a constant source of tension for him. Earlier, he managed to win over Rita Bahuguna Joshi -- the daughter of the late political wizard Hemvati Nandan Bahuguna -- who is currently mayor of Allahabad.

Amar Singh was understood to be actively engaged in bringing in yet another big name under the SP banner -- and that too for the prestigious Lucknow Lok Sabha constituency from where former prime minister Atal Behari Vajpayee will seek re-election.

That personage was none other than actress Jaya Bachchan, who was understood to have been nearly convinced to take on the BJP bigwig. But it was her husband, megastar Amitabh Bachchan who was the main stumbling block, as he was thoroughly against politics, having tasted its pangs once himself.

In fact, with Babbar having refused to face the BJP titan in Lucknow for the second time, Mulayam Singh was desperately looking for a high profile name to replace him. Amar Singh even managed to bring Jaya over to Lucknow for a cursory assessment, under the guise of a premiere for her comeback film Hazaar Chaurasi ki Maa.

Mulayam Singh and Amar Singh's close friend Subrata Roy -- the helmsman of the multi-billion rupee Sahara group, who had also cultivated Amitabh over the years -- came in handy to take care of the logistics. Mulayam Singh's aim was much larger than just having Jaya as a candidate against the mighty Vajpayee. She could have been a major asset to him in drawing crowds at elections meetings not only in UP and Bihar but also other states.

Mulayam Singh also planned to use the Bachchan connection to establish contact with the power centre in the Congress -- 10, Janpath. As it is, no sooner had Sonia Gandhi announced her decision to campaign for the Congress, Mulayam Singh was among the first to welcome it. And he emphasised that, "The fight against communal forces is not possible without the support of the Congress."

And now with Sonia raising the Ayodhya issue, Mulayam Singh has a word of caution for her. "She must not allow herself to be misled into talking about the Ayodhya issue," adding, "I have a lot of regard for her and feel that her being a novice in politics could land her into trouble."

Mulayam Singh does not wish to shut his doors on Sitaram Kesri either. Thus it was no surprise when this correspondent overheard him whispering to Balram Singh on the day that the latter was inducted into the Samajwadi Party, "Please don't say anything against Kesri." After all who knows which way the wind may blow tomorrow in the Congress. Mulayam Singh would like to keep his finger in both pies.

RELATED INTERVIEW:
Zero plus zero adds up to zero. The BJP plus anyone will always be zero: Mulayam

RELATED REPORT:
Mulayam unveils prime ministerial ambition

Tell us what you think of this report

HOME | NEWS | BUSINESS | CRICKET | MOVIES | CHAT
INFOTECH | TRAVEL | LIFE/STYLE | FREEDOM | FEEDBACK