Samajwadi Party battle for cycle: Suspense continues as Election Commission reserves order on party symbol

New Delhi: The Election Commission on Friday reserved its order after hearing claims of warring factions of the Samajwadi Party - one led by its patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav and other by his son Akhilesh - over allotment of party symbol cycle.

As per ANI, the hearing lasted for four hours. Election Commission will decide as to which group will be allotted the party symbol in due course of time.

During the hearing, UP CM Akhilesh placed his arguments first claiming that the majority of legislators is with him so the party symbol be allotted to him.

During the first part of the hearing, the Akhilesh camp, represented by senior lawyer Kapil Sibal, argued that the majority of MPs, MLAs and MLCs as well as the SP delegates are with Akhilesh.

As the hearing resumed later, the Mulayam camp placed its arguments claiming that the convention in which Akhilesh was anointed as the party chief was against the SP constitution.

Mulayam camp further claimed that Akhilesh is not fit to be president of the Samajwadi Party.  

The EC decision is eagerly awaited as the process of filing nominations for the first phase of UP polls will begin on January 17.

After the split in the party last week, the factions led by Mulayam and his son Akhilesh had approached the commission staking claim over the party and the symbol 'cycle'.

Both the sides had also submitted some documents to further their claim and the commission had given them time till Monday to provide signed affidavits of legislators and office bearers to claim control over the party's name and symbol.

The side which has the support of majority (50 percent plus 1) MPs, MLAs, MLCs and delegates will gain an upper hand in the fight to control the party founded 25 years ago. 

The election for phase one in UP is on February 11. With the notification, the process of filing nominations will begin. 

Candidates from Mulayam and Akhilesh camps cannot fight election on cycle symbol at the same time, therefore, the EC will have to take a call on the issue before that date. 

Meanwhile, Akhilesh Yadav-led faction is confident of getting the party symbol `cycle`.

"Our advocate Kapil Sibal has presented our case before Chief Election Commissioner Nasim Zaidi. He has informed the poll panel that majority of the MPs and MLAs of the party are with Akhilesh so the `cycle` symbol should be given to us," Suman Raghav, the Chief Minister`s advocate, was quoted as saying by IANS.

"We are confident that the decision will be in our favour," Raghav said.