In the Driving Seat, Akhilesh Yadav Moves For Say in Ticket Distribution

Lucknow: Shortly after convincing his party on the need for an alliance with Congress and the Rashtriya Lok Dal in the Uttar Pradesh polls, Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav is going ahead with the next item on his agenda - stamp his mark on ticket distribution.

Emerging out of a 90-minute long meeting, most of the leaders of the youth brigade privately expressed confidence they will be getting party tickets again this time. One of the MLAs speaking on condition of anonymity said, "CM has assured us we'll get tickets and asked us not to get distracted by recent political development".

Further they were also told to go ahead with campaigning on the "good work" done by their government.

Another SP MLA who comes from one of the Vidhan sabha seats in Amethi, the Parliamentary constituency of Congress vice president‎ Rahul Gandhi said, "Chief Minister looked confident about things to come. Though he didn't mention about alliance talks, he was confident about Samajwadi party coming back to power in next elections"

The meeting came on the day Mulayam returned from Delhi. Sources said Akhilesh's meeting with a section of MLAs had not gone well with both Mulayam and party state president Shivpal Yadav. There was an indication of this when Shivpal went to meet Mulayam later in the evening.

Sources said the two senior leaders discussed ticket distribution and Akhilesh's dissent on including candidates with a tainted reputation. The Akhilesh had earlier made his displeasure public on tickets being announced to the likes of Aman Mani tripathi and Ateek Ahmad.

‎By working out a seatsharing formula in princle and asserting his say in ticket distribution, Akhilesh has clearly conveyed to his uncle that there will be only one person in the driver's seat.

As a senior leader of the party, who is considered part of the Akhilesh camp put it: "After working out the alliance formula, Akhilesh knows he is in control. The election is being fought on his name. Therefore he will go ahead with full force on the choice of candidates.