Two days ago Akhilesh, who is fondly called Tipu, gave the social welfare portfolio to Shivpal, after he (Akhilesh) was removed as state SP president in a feud which has erupted in the Yadav family recently. The 43-year-old chief minister then stripped his 61-year-old uncle of all key portfolios in the state cabinet. Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections will be held in 2017.
Advertisement
Emerging out of the meeting, Ram Gopal Yadav expressed hope the crisis would be resolved at the earliest. “I accept Netaji’s decision to bring Gayatri Prajapati back into cabinet”, he said.
Unconfirmed reports suggest that the Chief Minister has returned the resignation of his uncle.
Amid open feud in the family, SP supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav rushed here from Delhi this evening and launched efforts to douse the flames by meeting his son and Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav as well as brother Shivpal.
Amid the opposition to the manner of his appointment as state unit chief, he said, “I was state president in 2011 and now netaji (Mulayam) has once again given me this responsibility”.
Making speeches during his yatra here with an eye on next year’s Assembly polls, Gandhi said Akhilesh can not accomplish much in the remaining few months. Later at a press interaction at the VVIP guest house where he is staying, the Rajya Sabha member indirectly hit out at his colleague Amar Singh as the “outsider” who was behind the crisis.
Earlier, in the day, Samajwadi Party leader and Mulayam Singh’s another brother Ramgopa Yadav said the party leadership made a “mistake” by removing Akhilesh Yadav as UP President, and the differences that cropped up were the result of some “misunderstanding”.
Amar Singh is now back in the party, although keeping a very low profile.
Though Akhilesh has been working hard to reinvent SP’s image as a youth friendly and development oriented party, he still needs a Shivpal to organise the party cadre, implement party’s policies, and more importantly convert goodwill into votes.
With Mr Shivpal Yadav appointed as the state unit chief, this is unlikely to happen.
The current crisis is a spillover from the time he was admitted into Samajwadi Party much against the wishes of a powerful section of the party, including the CM, Ramgopal Yadav and Azam Khan.
Sources claimed Shivpal had felt insulted during his meeting with the chief minister.
Advertisement
“(Mulayam) is final in the party”. On the other hand, it could also help Akhilesh kick the “puppet” tag, which still plagues him, and help him emerge from the shadows of the old guard.
