Akhilesh Yadav snubs uncle, names LoP

Lucknow: The Samajwadi Party in Uttar Pradesh may not have split formally as yet but for all practical purposes, the party is working on two parallel tracks.

SP president Akhilesh Yadav has convened a meeting of newly-elected MLAs on Tuesday, while Samajwadi patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav has called the party MLAs for a meeting on Wednesday.

Mr Akhilesh had earlier convened a meeting of newly elected MLAs on March 16 in which he had been authorised to name the leader of Opposition.

According to party sources, Mr Akhilesh Yadav was unwilling to name his estranged uncle Shivpal Yadav or Mohd Azam Khan as the leader of opposition while Mr Mulayam Singh Yadav wanted the post to be given to Mr Shivpal Yadav.

However, Mr Akhilesh Yadav, once again, outwitted his father on Monday evening when he sent a letter to the Speaker’s office naming veteran SP MLA Ram Govind Chaudhary as the leader of Opposition.

Meanwhile, no discussions have yet been held on the reasons for the party’s debacle in the recently concluded elections and it is learnt that some of the legislators had met Mr Mulayam Singh Yadav, asking him to take over the party again and check the downslide. “There is no denying the fact that Mr Akhilesh Yadav’s leadership has come under a cloud and we need to rethink our strategy if we wish to regain lost ground in the 20189 Lok Sabha elections”, said a newly-elected MLA. Mr Akhilesh also told the MLAs that ‘people very close to me’ betrayed him by not keeping him informed of ground realitty.

In January, Mr Akhilesh had promised to hand the party’s leadership to his father ‘after three months’.