Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Mulayam Singh Yadav flew to Lucknow on Thursday morning to convene a meeting of the party’s parliamentary board, possibly on Friday, to formalise the peace agreement he seems to have brokered between his feuding son and Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav, and his brother Shivpal Yadav.

The appointment of Shivpal as the Samajwadi Party’s UP unit chief seems to be a placatory gesture as also a signal that Akhilesh is still the most favoured figure to be projected as the party’s Chief Minister face in the 2017 elections.

A downcast Shivpal reflected on his five-hour-long meeting with Mulayam as he divulged that the role assigned to him — that of the head of the UP unit of SP — is the most critical political responsibility in the run-up to the Assembly elections early next year. He also conceded that divesting him of all Cabinet portfolios was the Chief Minister’s prerogative.

“The decision of department allocation is of the Chief Minister. It is his right. In what circumstances did he take this decision, we can’t raise a question mark over that. We all have to remain united. It is election time and we have to form the government again in 2017. No one has the capacity in our party to disregard what Netaji (Mulayam) says,” said Shivpal.

Chief Minister face

Asked whether he is fine with Akhilesh being SP’s Chief Minister face for the 2017 elections, he said: “I accept whatever decision Netaji takes.”

He also made light of the fact that Akhilesh had taken away all key portfolios from him. “What portfolios are given to whom is the CM’s prerogative. In any case, it is the end of our tenure and I have fulfilled my responsibilities as a Cabinet Minister. Now, the most important thing is to win elections. We all have to prepare for that,” he said.

Akhilesh seemed upbeat with the developments, having come out stronger — as an assertive leader having edged the rebellious Shivpal out while keeping Amar Singh in his place by the removal of Chief Secretary Deepak Singhal, who is close to both Shivpal and Amar Singh.

Amar Singh had thrown a party in Delhi last Saturday, where Singhal, Shivpal and Mulayam had been present. Akhilesh, who did not attend the party, subsequently sacked two ministers close to Mulayam and then the Chief Secretary.

In the middle of this spate of sackings, Mulayam replaced Akhilesh with Shivpal as the SP’s UP unit chief — a move that Akhilesh responded to by stripping Shivpal of all his Cabinet portfolios.

A defiant Akhilesh seemed to blame Amar Singh for the party’s ongoing crisis. “There is no crisis. If people from outside the family keep interfering, how will things work?” he remarked.

In the meantime, Mulayam’s other brother Ram Gopal Yadav, who is considered close to Akhilesh, met the Chief Minister this morning. He said the decision to replace Akhilesh with Shivpal as the party’s UP unit chief had not been communicated to Akhilesh.

Lack of communication

“Differences do take place on some minor point and they can be resolved...The leadership, though not deliberately, had made a mistake when te CM was removed from the post of (State) president (of SP),” Ram Gopal said.

“He (CM) should have been asked to resign and he would have tendered it. 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). Some misunderstanding has taken place and there is nothing more to it,” he added.

Without naming him, Ram Gopal also attacked Amar Singh, saying “some people” are “making use of Netaji’s simplicity”. He also attacked Amar Singh for his lack of affiliation to the party’s ideology and core values.

“You also know this. Those who have nothing to do with the party’s interest take benefit of the simplicity of Netaji...They harm the party...All those who met me are saying so,” Ram Gopal said.

“He is the same person who used Netaji’s simplicity to name an in-charge (Shivpal was earlier made SP UP in-charge). There is no such post in SP. They say you are being challenged...There is no one in the party who can challenge Netaji,” he said.

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