Dad puts Akhilesh Yadav future under cloud

Putting a question mark on the future of his son and UP chief minister Akhilesh Yadav, Samajwadi Party president Mulayam Singh Yadav said on Friday that the party’s MLAs will take a call on who will be the next CM.

In his first press conference since the ruptures within the Yadav family over the party’s decision to merge Quami Ekta Dal into it became public, the SP chief said, “The party will decide on the next chief ministerial candidate after the results of the 2017 assembly elections have been announced. It is not the media’s job to name the chief minister. The newly elected MLAs of the party will elect the new chief minister after the elections. Above all, it is the job of the party’s parliamentary board.”

The remarks are another setback to Mr Akhilesh Yadav, who was removed from the post of party’s state president owing to a fallout with his uncle Shivpal Yadav over the merger, which the CM was against.

The senior Yadav went on to claim that votes in the 2012 elections were sought in his name but he instead named his son for the top post.

While he refuted claims of any rift in the party or the family, Mr Mulayam Singh Yadav sought to emphasise that it’s because of him that the SP has reached the position it enjoys now.

His statements came hours after the CM said in an interview that he “might be cornered, but he will not be defeated”. “As a child, I had to keep my own name because there was no one to name me,” the CM said.

In response, Mr Mulayam Singh Yadav said that there was “nothing great about keeping one’s own name”.