Akhilesh, who was beside him, had no choice but to nod his head, even as he looked flustered and embarrassed after Mulayam reprimanded the ministers in attendance for what he termed as their “indifference”.
While Akhilesh was busy placating the crowd by distributing laptops and bicycles, Mulayam went off-tangent to ask the son, “Can you say how many of your ministers will be able to get re-elected?”
The SP chief added, “I have been getting reports from my sources that far from reaching out to the masses, most of the ministers remain confined to their air-conditioned rooms, so where is the question of their coming back?”
He said, “People keep telling me that the state of our party at the ground level is quite pathetic and our ministers in particular have failed to rise to the occasion to perform.”
He then looked towards his chief minister son to ask, “Tell me how many of your ministers or members of Legislative Assembly have come up with development plans for their respective areas?”
Recalling his own struggle in building the Samajwadi Party, he said, “If I am here today, I have slogged it out to build our party from a scratch and worked at the grassroots level for years.”
Referring to the state’s law and order situation, he however came out in defence of his son’s governance.
“UP was unnecessarily defamed even though there were far more rapes in the Bhartiya Janata Party-ruled states”, Mulayam claimed.
Significantly, this was the umpteenth time that Mulayam was heard expressing his disgust and disillusionment with his own son’s government. Some insiders claim that such attacks by the SP patriarch were carried out by him on purpose, so that he gets praise for public reprimand of the chief minister.
However there was no denying that such admonishment in public did cause much embarrassment to the son, who was already seen as one dominated by too many overbearing uncles and a “super chief minster” father.