War within Samajwadi Party: Shivpal joins Akhilesh Yadav's meet with Mulayam Singh - Will they reach truce?

Lucknow: Will Mulayam be able to broker peace between son Akhilesh and brother Shivpal?

This is the question that still remains unanswered as Shivpal on Thursday reportedly joined Akhilesh Yadav's meet with father Mulayam Singh.

Mulayam announces 325 candidates sans Akhilesh's presence

The meet comes hours after Mulayam made public a list of 325 candidates for Uttar Pradesh assembly elections early next year, saying the remaining 78 candidates would be announced later. Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav was not present in the press conference.

Earlier, in the day, Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav had convened a meeting of his party leaders on Thursday following the announcement of list of 325 candidates.

Akhilesh upset over Mulayam's list

Akhilesh had expressed his ire over the list released by his father and told the media in Bundelkhand that he would take it up with the party chief and tell him that some of them have done really good work and should be given tickets

Party supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav on Wednesday had announced the list at a press conference at the party office in the presence of brother and party leader Shivpal Yadav. 

Feud in party

What triggered a fresh round of feud in the party is the fact that 53 sitting legislators have been denied tickets. 

In the list announced by him, Mulayam clearly ignored the objections of Akhilesh to certain names like Gayatri Prajapati, Rampal Yadav, Sigbatullah Ansari - the brother of jailed gangster Mukhtar Ansari and Atiq Ahmed, who faces over 40 criminal cases.

The list, which includes 176 sitting MLAs, does not mention the names of several pro-Akhilesh ministers and MLAs including Ram Govind Chaudhary, Pawan Pandey and Arvind Singh.

Mulayam Singh Yadav did not speak of a prospective alliance for the polls. 

The Samajwadi Party has 224 seats in the present assembly.