Brahmins disappointed as Mulayam gives sammelan a miss, sends Shivpal

Samajwadi Party (SP) supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav today skipped the Brahmin sammelan organised by SP's Brahmin Sabha at party headquarters.

Though Cabinet Minister Shivpal Yadav attended the sammelan, the Brahmins were disappointed by the absence of Mulayam Singh. The sammelan was a lackluster event with hardly 250-odd people attending it despite much publicity.

"We were informed that Mulayam Singh will be addressing the sammelan and spell out the future roadmap of the party and Brahmins' role in it. It seems they are not serious about the community," Rajesh Tiwari, a participant from Sultanpur said.

The SP has decided to woo the Brahmin voters ahead of the Lok Sabha polls. For this, Mulayam Singh had personally held meetings with Brhamin leaders of the party and entrusted the task of motivating Brahmin voters towards the party. The move is seen as an answer to the social engineering concept of Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) where it has roped in Rajya Sabha MP Satish Chandra Mishra as the Brahmin face. The intensive activity by SP aiming at Brahmins is expected to act as a breaker for BSP in wooing the community.

In 2012 Assembly elections, 22 Brahmin MLAs won from the 42 candidates fielded by the SP.

The Brahmin sammelan today turned into a delegate conference with 10 Brahmins invited from every district. Many party leaders termed the event as a 'show' of MLA Manoj Pandey, who also heads the state unit of SP's Brahmin sabha.

During the sammelan, Shivpal recalled SP's association with Brahmins and cited example of Janeshwar Mishra. "We were with Brahmins in the past and even today we have close association with them. The samman of Brahmins will be protected. Pandey is doing good job and he will be rewarded soon," Shivpal said.

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