The rift in Uttar Pradesh’s ruling Samajwadi Party grew wider on Friday with Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav skipping an important meeting called by State party chief Shivpal Yadav to draw up strategies for the Assembly polls due early next year.
Mr. Akhilesh, however, met the delegates, who earlier attended the meeting called by Mr. Shivpal, at his residence separately.
Mr. Shivpal had convened a meeting of SP district and city units presidents at the party headquarters.
At the strategy session, Mr. Shivpal, apparently seeking to bury the hatchet, declared nephew Akhilesh the party’s chief ministerial face.
“Akhilesh Yadav will be the next CM, if the party is voted to power. He will be our CM candidate,” Mr. Shivpal said, days after party supremo Mulayam Singh virtually left the field open by saying the newly elected legislators will choose their leader, something which did not go down well with the camp followers of the incumbent CM. Though Mr. Shivpal, the younger brother of Mr. Mulayam Singh, had met Mr. Akhilesh personally on Thursday night to invite him to the meeting, the Chief Minister kept away, indicating all was not well in the party despite repeated protestations by its senior leaders to the contrary.
Cryptic message After the meeting was over, a cryptic message went out from the 5, Kalidas Marg residence of the Chief Minister that he wanted to meet the district party presidents.
At the brief meeting, Mr. Akhilesh apprised them of his ‘rath yatra’ scheduled from November 3 and said they would be kept informed about it.
He asked them to work hard in their respective areas to reap a bumper electoral harvest and “everything will be fine.”
The meeting of SP district heads was held a day ahead of the party’s state executive meet.
Mr. Mulayam Singh has also convened a meeting of party legislators and ministers on October 24 to “gauge the mood” of the partymen and people of their area.
Mr. Shivpal asked the district party chiefs to gear up for elections and also to make the party’s silver jubilee celebrations on November 5 in the State capital a big success.
Rath yatra Mr. Akhilesh, with whom Mr. Shivpal is engaged in a bitter feud over the last few months, has made it clear in a letter to the SP chief and his father that he would be proceeding on his ‘rath yatra’ on November 3 to highlight the development work done by his government, in a clear indication that he would skip the November 5 event too.
