“But just ahead of the crucial Bihar assembly polls held past year, the SP walked out of the alliance, apparently in a bid to benefit the BJP”, he said, adding “Though both parties may keep pretending to be locked in an ideological fight”.
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Shivpal has now quit from the cabinet and also the post of State president, which he was accorded on Tuesday, television reports suggested.
The Samajwadi Party (SP) leader said from re-inducting Amar Singh into the SP to experiment with the “Grand Alliance”, he had always followed the directions of Mulayam. One such person got appointed as in-charge (Shivpal) of the party though there was no such provision. The crisis among the party erupted on Tuesday after Akhilesh removed chief secretary Deepak Singhal, known to be close to Shivpal and Mulayam. Mulayam Singh Yadav, hours after his removal, had asked Akhilesh to reinstate him, which he refused.
He added that he would accept the decision of the party chief.
The crisis in Samajwadi party has deepened in last three days and the party has to bear some irreparable damage after the fight among Yadav pariwar started.
Some Shivpal Yadav supporters, wearing T-shirts with images of Shivpal, also demanded action against party General Secretary Ram Gopal Yadav, who on Thursday termed Rajya Sabha member Amar Singh as the villain in the entire sordid episode.
The day’s developments, however, further brought to fore the divisions within the family on the role of Mulayam Singh friend Amar Singh.
Meanwhile, BSP chief Mayawati criticized the SP for the ongoing “drama” and said it was orchestrated by Mulayam Singh to divert people’s attention. Barely 48 hours after the court rejected the government’s plea to withdraw the CBI probe against the mining minister, Akhilesh cracked the whip on him and ordered Prajapati’s ouster from his cabinet. There is no such post in SP. But power has its own dynamics and it is a public secret that Shivpal was an aspirant for the chief ministerial gaddi after the 2012 Assembly poll when MSY surprised everyone by handing over the coveted post to his son. “No one has the capacity in our party to disregard what Netaji (Mulayam) says”, said 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”. He could have been told – elections are coming and you continue as CM and the work of State president will be taken care of by him (Shivpal). If everyone becomes intelligent, all of them will be CM or netaji.
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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.
