After Meeting Akhilesh Yadav, Shivpal resigns from UP Cabinet

Mangalore Today News Network

Lucknow,Sep 15, 2016 :  Hours after meeting Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav, Shivpal Yadav resigned from the state cabinet as well as the chief of the party’s state unit.

 
Mulayam Singh has already met Shivpal, his favourite brother, twice, to hear his part of the story. On Wednesday, Shivpal had rushed off to Delhi for a four-hour meeting with Mulayam Singh. They had met again this afternoon after reaching Lucknow.

Earlier this evening Shivpal Yadav had a 20-minute meeting with Akhilesh Yadav. It was not immediately known what they had discussed.

The rift within had been growing for months but the crisis came on Tuesday, hours after Mulayam Singh Yadav removed Akhilesh as the state party chief.

The move was widely seen as a punishment for the Chief Minister’s run-in with Shivpal, Mulayam Singh’s favourite younger brother.

Late on Tuesday evening, the Chief Minister divested Shivpal Yadav - a key minister in the state government - of all his crucial portfolios, leaving him with only the social welfare ministry.

The leaders claim there is no dispute within the family and call the feud a "conspiracy" by outsiders.
 
Without naming anyone, Akhilesh Yadav has said, "If people from outside the family keep interfering, how will things work?" Many interpret the statement as a reference to Amar Singh, who returned to the Samajwadi Party recently after a six-year exile.

Many party leaders believe that Amar Singh is in league with Shivpal Yadav in a plan to turn Mulayam Singh against his son. It is also believed that he had engineered the shifting of Akhilesh Yadav from the post of the state party chief.

The feud, five months before the elections has drawn opposition jibes. The Chief Minister, Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi said, was trying to change the image of his government by "replacing tyres of his damaged cycle" but it was too late.

Calling the whole episode a "drama in the absence of any tangible work done by the SP government," BSP chief Mayawati advised Mulayam Singh to retire.