In a fresh blow to Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav, his close aide and MLC Udayveer Singh was expelled from the Samajwadi Party on Saturday, just days after he shot off a stinging letter to party supremo Mulayam Singh, alleging that Mr. Akhilesh’s stepmother was conspiring against the Chief Minister.
Mr. Udayveer Singh had earlier this week announced that he and other Akhilesh loyalists would boycott the SP’s silver celebrations in November, protesting against the expulsion of many of their colleagues by Mr. Mulayam Singh and his brother Shivpal Yadav.
Mr. Udayveer Singh was expelled from the SP for six years for indulging in “anti-party activities”, “indiscipline” and “working against the principles and polices” of the party, said Deepak Mishra, SP spokesperson and close aide of Mr Shivpal Yadav.
The resolution against the young MLC was passed unanimously in the party’s State executive meeting held here, where his “objectionable, undignified and derogatory remarks” against the party supremo were “condemned”, Mr. Mishra said.
A resident of Firozabad, Mr. Udayveer Singh, an M.Phil from JNU, is among Mr Akhilesh Yadav’s most trusted aides, having studied in school together in Dholpur. Soon after Mr. Akhilesh Yadav earlier this week announced that he would start the party’s campaign on his own with a rath yatra on November 3, Mr. Udayveer wrote a four-page note to Mr Mulayam Singh.
In the letter, the MLC cited several reasons for the ongoing feud in the family, including wrong advice and feedback to Mr. Mulayam about Mr. Akhilesh, conspiracy within the family and personal envy against the Chief Minister further fomented by outsiders like Amar Singh.
‘No regrets’Reacting to his expulsion, Mr. Udayveer Singh said he had no regrets and reaffirmed his loyalty to Mr Akhilesh Yadav. “I stand by what I wrote,” he said, adding that he was upset not over his sacking but by the fact that the “truth” was being kept away from Mr Mulayam Singh. Sources said the expulsion had shocked and further confused the SP cadre and leaders in the Akhilesh camp.
His sacking comes at a critical time when the SP supremo is trying douse a seemingly unending family feud.
