Three ministers, four legislators and over a dozen party leaders have been suspended/ expelled from the Samajwadi Party on charges of indiscipline and anti-party activities since the party came to power in March 2012 but this, obviously, has not worked as a damper among the party cadres.
Chief minister Akhilesh Yadav, who is also the state president of the Samajwadi Party, has probably begun to realise the extent of damage that is being done to the image of his government with the antics of his party leaders.
Mr Yadav, on Wednesday, suspended three legislators from the party — one of them, Mahendra Singh, was arrested with bar girls in Goa and two others, Ram Lal Akela and Radhey Shyam Jaiswal were found to be forcibly grabbing property in their constituencies.
He had earlier suspended SP MLA Pramod Gupta when the latter gave statements about the poor law-and-order situation in the state.
The chief minister has also dissolved the Aurraiya district unit that is headed by Ram Babu Yadav. Ram Babu Yadav had hit the headlines when his telephonic conversation with a women party leader was telecast on TV channels and the veteran leader was heard demanding “chicks aged between 18 and 20 years” from her.
Earlier, the chief minister had dropped Vinod Singh from his Cabinet when the latter allegedly roughed up a chief medical officer in Gonda district. Vinod Singh was reinstated after a gap of about four months due to political compulsions in the constituency.
Raja Bhaiyya was shown the door when his name came up in the murder of Pratapgarh DSP Zia-ul-Haq and Rajaram Pandey was given marching orders when he made sexist remarks against a woman district magistrate. Both have not been reinstated.
For every leader who has faced action in the Samajwadi Party, there are at least a dozen who have gone scot free.
UP minister Shiv Kumar Beria said at a public function that bureaucrats had to bow before him if they wished to remain in their chair. Another minister, Vijay Bahadur Pal, announced at a function that 99 per cent of the people who voted were “fools”.
UP minister Mehboob Ali hits headlines when his supporters brandished firearms and happily fired in the air for hours to celebrate his victory.
SP MLA Shakir Ali made news when he galloped on a horse at the Deoria railway platform to celebrate his victory and, again, recently his men burnt effigies of the chief minister because he was not given a ministerial berth.
No action, however, was taken against these ministers and legislators.
A senior SP ministers reasoned, “We cannot take action against every offender but we are trying to give out a strong message now. Indiscipline will not longer be tolerated now that Lok Sabha elections are round the corner.”