Lucknow: The stage is set. Sound systems have been tested to avoid any last minute glitch. The forecourt is staked with red chairs, which will be put in neat rows facing the podium.
At 11am Monday morning, Mulayam Singh Yadav will once again take stage. The pehelwan from Etawah and a veteran of many a political battles this time will will be fighting perhaps the toughest and probably the last political battle of his life.
Ironically though, the challenge has been thrown at him by none other than his own son, Akhilesh Yadav, who faces perhaps the first real political challenge in his own political career.
On Monday morning Akhilesh supporters will go for the meeting called by Mulayam. And if their leader is censured publicly, as has been the case in the past, they may even challenge it. Then and there.
In this fight between the son and the father, the Akhilesh camp knows that they are up against a never-say-die politician, who almost became the Prime Minister in 1996 with the Left support, the three-time chief minister of UP, the man who stopped Sonia Gandhi from becoming the Prime Minister, the man who swung the nuclear deal in UPA's favour, the man who aligned with Kanshi Ram and then attempted to split the BSP, the man who broke away from Chandrasekhar to launch his own party at Begum Hazrat Mahal Park in Lucknow twenty five years back.
He's survived the rough and tumble of UP politics for more than four decades. Netaji, as he's fondly called, never gives up. Not even with his back to the wall, Which is why the SP cardre still hopes, and hopes against hope that Netaji will have something up his sleeves Monday morning to save the party from a vertical split.
For them he's the same leader who can identify his workers by their first name amidst a throng, who chides and then consoles them.
But those who have met him in the last one week are not so hopeful. He's angry and aggrieved with his son, they say. He's adamant- something which goes against his own grain of flexibility he's displayed in his political career when dealing even with his adversaries.
Some blame it on Amar Singh. Some on age; and some on stars.
Pre-emting Monday's meeting, Akhilesh has already conducted a show of strength by calling a meeting of legislators in his support. Having done that, he sacked his uncle Shivpal from the cabinet. Mulayam struck back by expelling his own cousin and Akhilesh supporter Ram Gopal Yadav, accusing the latter of being in hand-in-glove with the BJP.
It's not the first time that his immediate family has jostled for political space and dominance. But in the past Mulayam could always settle it within the confines of his village in Saifai. This time though it has spilled onto the streets of Lucknow and become a public spectacle.
This fight is not about CM face or state president. It is about Mulayam's legacy which people thought he had settled in favour of Akhilesh.
The events in the last one month indicate perhaps that was not the case.
Akhilesh supporters have been drawing an analogy with Indira Gandhi's attempts to break out of the shackles of the syndicate in 1967. In politics, as in life, no two situation are analogous in totality.
Both sides know it's a bitter battle, a fight to the end. And the one who shows mercy will be politically finished.
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