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Samajwadi Party Feud: Shivpal Yadav To Wait For Mulayam's Directions

Still a family matter?
File photo of Mulayam Singh Yadav with Shivpal Singh Yadav.
India Today Group/Getty Images
File photo of Mulayam Singh Yadav with Shivpal Singh Yadav.

LUCKNOW -- As open strife in the ruling Yadav clan pushed UP into political crisis, Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav today cancelled some official engagements, while his uncle Shivpal Yadav, who was stripped of key portfolios, said he will abide by the directions of SP supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav.

The Samajwadi Party top brass, meanwhile, swung into a damage control mode to keep the flock together ahead of Assembly elections, with Mulayam Singh Yadav calling Shivpal and Ram Gopal Yadav for a meeting in New Delhi.

As the state plunged into crisis, the chief minister stayed put in his 5, Kalidas Marg official residence since morning to take stock of the situation and did not attend two official engagements perhaps to avoid the media.

Amid speculation that he will resign from the Akhilesh cabinet, Shivpal said giving and taking portfolios is the discretion of the CM and he will abide by the decision of Mulayam Singh Yadav.

"It is the discretion of CM to give (or take) portfolios and remove officers and keep his advisors. I will follow netaji's directions and will fulfil responsibilities given by him," he told reporters at Saifai, Mulayam's native village.

Asked about his future course of action, Shivpal said, "I will talk to netaji (Mulayam). People of the state have full faith in netaji and the Samajwadi Party."

'It is the discretion of CM to give (or take) portfolios... I will follow netaji's directions and will fulfil responsibilities given by him.'

From Saifai, Shivpal flew to Delhi to meet Mulayam even as thousands of his supporters gathered outside his residence there and the PWD guest house to express solidarity with him as speculation was rife that he might resign.

The Mulayam family has been dogged by serious differences but matters reached a flash point yesterday after Chief Minister shunted out Chief Secretary Deepak Singhal, considered as his uncle Shivpal Yadav's favourite.

In a tit-for-tat action, Mulayam took away the post of UP Samajwadi Party chief from his son Akhilesh, perhaps to smooth the ruffled feathers of Shivpal.

But, within hours a peeved chief minister hit back by clipping his uncle's wings by divesting him of his key PWD, Irrigation and Cooperative portfolios.

The crisis has come at a time when the party is in the midst of ticket distribution process and differences among its top leaders could upset the party's apple cart during the Assembly elections due early next year.

When the SP supremo had anointed his son Akhilesh as the chief minister in 2012 overlooking the claims of Shivpal, it was anyone's guess that the ruling party will face pulls and pressures very often.

It is no secret that has harboured chief ministerial ambitions and did not take too kindly to his claims being overlooked in 2012.

File photo of Shivpal Yadav (L) and MP Poonamben Madam.
Hindustan Times via Getty Images
File photo of Shivpal Yadav (L) and MP Poonamben Madam.

To a question regarding SP's CM face for the 2017 polls, Shivpal today said it was for the party's Parliamentary Board to decide. He avoided taking the name of Akhilesh. Akhilesh, with his youthful appeal and his promise of the SP turning over a new leaf, had played a major role in convincing the UP electorate that the lawlessness, which marked the SP's earlier tenure between 2002 and 2007, would be a thing of the past.

With Assembly polls inching closer, Akhilesh has been concentrating on sprucing up the image of his government and recently overturned the decision of his father on the merger of the Quami Ekta Dal (QED). Shivpal was said to have shepherded the merger of gangster-politician Mukhtar Ansari's QED with Samajwadi Party. When Akhilesh publicly nixed the merger Shivpal felt he was publicly humiliated by his nephew. QED, an eastern UP-based political party is headed by ex-SP MP Afzal Ansari, who is elder brother of Mukhtar, now in jail in connection with the murder of a BJP MLA. Akhilesh was adamant that the merger be called off because he wanted to maintain his clean image, once he had sought to establish by opposing DP Yadav in the party before the 2012 Assembly polls. His stand had won the party political mileage after it had lost power in 2007 on poor law and order, a matter snowballing into a major poll issue this time too.

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This article exists as part of the online archive for HuffPost India, which closed in 2020. Some features are no longer enabled. If you have questions or concerns about this article, please contact indiasupport@huffpost.com.