India
The father-son duo seem to have opposite opinions over whom to appoint as the next head of Uttar Pradesh police force.
Updated : May 23, 2015, 08:33 PM IST
The ruling Yadav clan in Uttar Pradesh is suddenly divided into two groups over the question about who would take over as the next head of the UP Police. The present director general of police (DGP) Arun Kumar Gupta retires on January 31 after a rather brief tenure (just a month since January 1).
UP chief minister Akhilesh Yadav is pitching for Jagmohan Yadav while his father and Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Mulayam Singh Yadav wants an extension for Gupta, say insiders. The father has already coerced the son into sending a letter to the Centre asking for a six-month extension to Gupta. If Gupta doesn't get the extension, AK Jain could be the next UP DGP.
Sources close to Mulayam say the Yadav chieftain does not want Jagmohan Yadav in the saddle as he is known to be an SP supporter and his posting could send out a negative message in the run-up to the 2017 Assembly election. Also, he is well aware that Yadav's elevation would only embolden the lumpen elements – of which the party has a more-than-fair share – giving fodder to the opposition already bent upon painting the SP regime as "goonda raj".
"In the past, Jagmohan Yadav has functioned more as a SP worker rather than a police official," quipped a senior police official, virtually echoing the sentiment in the uniformed force.
For his part, Akhilesh feels Jagmohan's posting as DGP would mark a historic event in the annals of the UP Police which has never had a Yadav chief, though Neera Yadav has been the head of bureaucracy as Chief Secretary.
Officials close to the CM confide that he is acutely aware of a feeling of alienation amongst the Yadavs who feel sidelined as compared to minorities in this regime. "This could be his way of assuaging their hurt," remarked a senior officer.
Also, Akhilesh seems to have taken a lesson from BSP chief Mayawati's rout in the 2012 Assembly election, mainly because she had alienated her base votebank, the Dalits, while snuggling up to the Brahmins. The politically savvy CM doesn't want to be similarly decimated due to Yadavs' disaffection.
Interestingly, Mulayam's younger brother Shivpal, a powerful party leader and senior cabinet minister, and party MP and Mulayam's cousin Ramgopal Yadav are learnt to be favouring their nephew's viewpoint. Interesting, because the two leaders have not been on the best of terms with Akhilesh of late as the latter has developed an independent functioning style wherein family pressures do not affect decision-making anymore (Mulayam being the only exception).
Insiders say Mulayam wants to keep Jagmohan at bay also because the police officer could soon find himself ensnared in the murky Yadav Singh controversy. Income Tax authorities had recently uncovered assets and properties running into thousands of crores belonging to Noida chief engineer Yadav Singh and his kith and kin. It was Jagmohan who, as chief of the crime branch of CID, had given a clean chit to Yadav Singh in a multi-crore scam. His role is likely to be exposed once the investigation agencies start unraveling the scam layer by layer. Yadav Singh has been absconding since the IT raids two months ago.