Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav on Saturday congratulated his uncle Shivpal Yadav for being named the state unit president of the party.
“Congratulated the state party chief appointed by Netaji (Mulayam Singh Yadav)… Will support state party president Shivpal,” the Chief Minister said in Lucknow, after meeting his uncle at his residence.
“We are united, there is no rift in the party,” Akhilesh Yadav told the supporters of his party, asking them to work together “so that opponents don’t get a chance to raise fingers at us”.
Akhilesh Yadav was removed as the state party chief on Tuesday by his father and Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav, who then appointed his favourite brother, Shivpal, to the post. The move was widely seen as a punishment for the Chief Minister’s run-in with Shivpal.
Last night, the Chief Minister had tweeted to say that Shivpal will get back the three important ministries that were taken away from him earlier this week.
The truce between Akhilesh Yadav and Shivpal was enforced by Mulayam Singh yesterday when he met the two leaders for 30 minutes. “There will no division in the party till I am here… we are a big family, differences may occur,” the SP chief had asserted.
The tussle between Akhilesh Yadav and uncle Shivpal for supremacy was threatening to derail the party months before crucial assembly elections in the state. Their differences had deepened after Akhilesh scuttled Shivpal’s plan to merge don Mukhtar Ansari’s party ‘Quami Ekta Dal’ with the Samajwadi Party.
Shivpal Yadav had on Thursday faxed his resignation from the UP cabinet to Akhilesh Yadav and had also quit all party posts.
Trusted by Mulayam Singh as the party’s key election strategist, Shivpal is said to have pressed for the removal of Akhilesh as Chief Minister, urging his brother to take over.
