A day after Akhilesh Yadav and uncle Ramgopal was expelled from the Samajwadi Party by his father and SP Chief Mulayam Singh Yadav, the junior Yadav held an important meeting on Saturday at his residence. Notably, a majority of the 229 party MLAs were present at the meeting. Some SP MLCs and senior party functionaries who always remained loyal to Akhilesh also attended the meeting.
Akhilesh is also expected to meet his supporters and party workers later in the day to prove his strength.
Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav expelled his ‘disobedient’ son, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav, from the party for 6 years for “gross indiscipline,” on Friday. The move was taken a day after the junior Yadav issued an equivalent list of candidates for the upcoming Assembly polls in UP.
Ramgopal Yadav, SP national general secretary and cousin SP Chief who was supporting Akhilesh, was also sacked for “weakening the party” and insulting the supremo through his remarks.
The “tough action” was necessary to “save the party,” said Mulayam. Now, the party would decide on its new CM, said Mulayam. He had already ruled out projecting Akhilesh as the CM candidate on Wednesday while releasing his own version of list.
“I will take the strictest action to save the SP. For us, the SP is the priority. We don’t care for posts. Now we want to save the party,” said Mulayam as per a report in The Hindu.
The SP Chief also blamed Ramgopal of hurting Akhilesh’s future visions by instigating him. “He is trying to end Akhilesh’s future. Akhilesh is unable to understand this,” said the supremo.
Declaring that he was the boss, Mulayam said the party was built by his “hard work.”
Earlier on Friday, Mulayam issued show cause notices to Akhilesh and Ramgopal and asked why disciplinary action should not be taken against them.
“Your issue of a list parallel to that of the national president is gross indiscipline,” said Mulayam in the notice to his son. He also reprimanded Ramgopal for insulting him and siding with Akhilesh.
“Through your comments in the media, you have said you will campaign for the candidates chosen by Akhilesh Yadav. You also said that Akhilesh Yadav will run the party better than Mulayam Singh. Your comments amount to gross indiscipline and insult to the national president,” the notice read further.
Governor Ram Naik made it clear that there was no constitutional emergency as yet and so far the matter was only constrained to the party. He said he was keeping a close eye on the situation.
Moments after he was sacked, Ramgopal appealed to party members to attend an “emergency” national convention to “chalk out a path for the future,” on January 1 at the Ram Manohar Lohia University.
On this, SP Chief said Ramgopal’s call for an emergency meeting was “unconstitutional” and only he, as the boss, had the power to do so. Shivpal issued a letter of warning to party workers asking them to not take part in the “programme.”
“The programme is totally against the constitution of the party and in violation of party discipline. It has been called with the intention of harming the party,” said Shivpal. “Strict action” would be taken against anyone attending the meet or offering support to it, he added.
Ramgopal claimed that his sacking was ‘illegal’ as he and Akhilesh were removed even before they could reply to the notices. “After a notice is issued, replies need to be given. Without taking the reply and hearing the other side, action is not taken even against the biggest criminals, and if action is taken, the court rejects it. They are acting bigger than courts,” said Ramgopal.
