After days of party in-fighting, Mulayam brokers peace between son, brother

A temporary truce seemed to have been called on Friday in the ruling Samajwadi Party (SP) in Uttar Pradesh, with party veteran Mulayam Singh Yadav managing to bring the two feuding members — his son and Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav and brother Shivpal Singh Yadav — to the negotiating table together for the first time in weeks.

While the final contours of the peace formula will be announced on Saturday, what has come to light is that Shivpal will be awarded all his Cabinet portfolios which Akhilesh had divested him of earlier this week. Additionally, he is likely to retain the job of chief of SP’s UP unit while Akhilesh will be heading a panel to select candidates for the upcoming Assembly polls. Any dispute on the candidate selection will be resolved by Mulayam.

Akhilesh also seemed to have agreed to take back another minister, Gayatri Prajapati, known to be close to Shivpal and Mulayam, whom he had earlier sacked.

Just before negotiating the truce, Mulayam broke his silence over the family dispute.

“There can be no division in the party, till I am there,” he said. “We have a big family, differences may occur...There is no fight between Shivpal Yadav and Akhilesh,” the Samjwadi Party supremo asserted while addressing partymen, adding that Akhilesh will meet Shivpal at his residence.

It is election time and all should come together to work in a united manner, he told reporters as slogans in favour of Shivpal drowned his remarks.

Speaking to the media later, Akhilesh talked about his angst at having been removed from the post of UP unit chief of the party — a job Mulayam had handed over to Shivpal earlier this week. Akhilesh had hit back within hours, taking away all key Cabinet portfolios from Shivpal.

“I felt bad and you saw its effect. I’m coming here after a discussion with Netaji (Mulayam). SP is a family and there are no differences in the party,” he said at a media event here. He rubbished reports that he is behind the feud in the family, saying: “It’s a fight for the chair. If a good person asks for the CM’s post, I am ready to give it up. It’s election time. We should all come together and work.”

Making it clear that he wanted a say in the distribution of ticket in the upcoming State elections, Akhilesh said: “I say I will give back everything but then I will say I should have the authority to distribute ticket.

“It will be my pariskha (test) in elections.”

Another important outcome of the resolution on Friday was the declaration by the Chief Minister that “outsiders”, a term used for Rajya Sabha MP Amar Singh who is known to have fomented the Yadav family dispute, will be kept out of family affairs.

Akhilesh underlined this when he said: “Everyone understands who is this outsider, even you know that. I have told Netaji that if an outsider comes between us, he will be thrown out…Netaji and I have decided that we will not let outsiders drive a wedge between us.”

“If there is some issue, Netaji will find a solution and everyone will accept it. Netaji is my father and also his (Shivpal’s) brother, he will find a solution to this issue,” he said.

Shivpal, who had dramatically resigned from all party and government posts late on Thursday night, also struck a semi-conciliatory tone today.

“We all have to strengthen SP. We are with Netaji (Mulayam). His message is an order for us. We will not let the party be weakened. In every situation, we are with Netaji,” Shivpal said, addressing his slogan-shouting supporters.

“You have to go to the party office. We have to calmly convey our views to Netaji.”

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