Mulayam, Akhilesh, Shivpal meet to end ‘misunderstanding’
Two surprise meetings of top leaders of the Samajwadi factions, one late on Thursday evening and another going on till after noon on Friday in Lucknow indicate drama in the Yadav parivar may end soon
Mulayam seems to have gone ‘soft’ over handing over the reins of the Samajwadi Party to Akhilesh Yadav after a late night ‘family’ meeting on Thursday in which Shivpal Singh Yadav is said to have offered to relinquish his party post.
On Friday morning, Shivpal Yadav in a surprise move called on Akhilesh Yadav around 9.30 am at the CM’s official residence. Thereafter Akhilesh Yadav went over to Mulayam Singh Yadav’s house, fuelling speculation of a breakthrough in the family drama that has kept Uttar Pradesh gripped for the past few months.
The family conclave was still on at 12.30 pm on Friday when this report was filed.
The turnaround is said to be largely due to the groundswell of support for Akhilesh Yadav among law makers. The Samajwadi Party cadre also left little doubt in people’s mind about who in the party is acceptable to them as the chief.
Mulayam Singh’s apolitical brother Abhayram Yadav, says the grapevine, played the role of peacemaker. Abhayram, the youngest brother of Mulayam Singh Yadav, is a farmer and has stayed away from politics. The infighting in the family brought him to Lucknow.
The turnaround is said to be largely due to the groundswell of support for Akhilesh Yadav among law makers. The Samajwadi Party cadre also left little doubt in people’s mind about who in the party is acceptable to them as the chief
The meetings in the family continued well past midnight till 12.30 am on Thursday. Sources held that the only grey area that remained to be sorted out for a patch-up was the rehabilitation of Ram Gopal Yadav.
Meanwhile,
- Akhilesh in a meeting on Thursday got signatures of 210 MLAs and 50 MLCs on stamp paper declaring that Akhilesh Yadav has been nominated as National President of Samajwadi Party
- Akhilesh is learnt to have said at the meeting, “Netaji (Mulayam Singh Yadav) is with us. He is our leader and marg darshak.”
- “I have asked Netaji to give me just three months time. I will leave all posts after that. I want to give a gift to him before Holi,” Akhilesh added
- Over 5,000 party leaders and cadre have signed letters in support of the Chief Minister
- Amid these positive signals there are reports that Shivpal Singh Yadav has frozen the party’s bank account. Party has accounts in SBI, Bank of Baroda and Cenara Bank having over ₹3.5 crore in these banks
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