Samajwadi Party feud may end soon; Ram Gopal says Akhilesh was kept in dark, hints at compromise formula

Samajwadi Party leader Ram Gopal Yadav said on Thursday that Uttar Pradesh CM Ahilkesh Yadav was not consulted by the central leadership before removing him as the state chief of the party, which hurt his image.

New Delhi: Samajwadi Party leader Ram Gopal Yadav, who was rushed to Lucknow to resolve the ongoing crisis in the party, said on Thursday that Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Ahilkesh Yadav was not consulted by the central leadership before removing him as the state chief of the party, which hurt his image.

While accepting that Akhilesh Yadav should have been taken into confidence before being asked to step down as UP party president, Ram Gopal said that there is absolutely no rift within the party and the family.

Ram Gopal also hinted at a compromise formula being worked out by the party to iron out differences between Akhilesh and his uncle Shivpal.

As per the formula, Akhilesh may be reinstated as the working president of the Samajwadi Party, while Shivpal may be given his key portfolios.

However, he clearly denied that the party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav has called a meeting of the party's parliamentary board on Friday to resolve the crisis.

He is yet to hold a detailed discussion with his nephew Akhilesh later in the day.

Ram Gopal made these remarks shortly after arriving in the state capital on the instructions of Samajwadi Party patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav to meet UP CM and resolve the crisis at the earliest.

Soon after his arrival in the UP state capital, Ram Gopal said, ''There is no crisis in the SP family, the party stands united.''

The SP general secretary also blamed media for fuelling the family feud.

Shivpal, who is also the younger brother of Mulayam, had reached Delhi yesterday to meet the party chief at his official residence.

During the meeting, Shivpal Yadav had reportedly expressing his inability to work under nephew and CM Akhilesh Yadav.

Mulayam has reportedly called the party's parliamentary board meeting on Friday to end the crisis.

Earlier on Wednesday, speaking at a function in Lucknow, Akhilesh, who chose the day to tweet about the start of his poll campaign on October 3, said "outsiders" were interfering in the affairs of the family and the party .

Akhilesh said it was not a family fight: "Yeh ghar ki ladai nahi hai, yeh sarkar ki ladai hai (this is not a family feud, this is a fight for the government)."

A day after he was removed as party chief and his uncle Shivpal Yadav was given the charge, UP CM Akhilesh Yadav said on Wednesday, "If outsiders interfere in family matters, how can we tolerate it? Everyone listens to Netaji."

Akhilesh, it is believed, was hinting at the involvement of party's Rajya Sabha MP Amar Shing, who is not in good terms with him.

Interestingly, Akhilesh had in recent past opposed Amar Singh's entry into the SP fold – the move was backed by Mulayam and his brother Shivpal.

Meanwhile, Singh , on the other hand, denied that he was the "outsider" Akhilesh was referring to. He even refused to accept that he had anything to do with the crisis as was being made out.

Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi, meanwhile, took a jibe at SP at his `khaat sabha' in Mirzapur, saying that the party's tyre had punctured and now "Akhilesh had thrown the wheel out".

The four-hour meeting between Mulayam and Shivpal turned out to be futile as the latter refused to resume his work as a downgraded and demoted minister.

While in Lucknow, Akhilesh showed no sign of reinstating the two dismissed ministers, Gayatri Prajapati and Raj Kishore Singh, or rehabilitating the powerful bureaucrat Deepak Singhal, removed from the post of chief secretary on Tuesday.

Akhilesh also showed no intention of going to Delhi to help re solve the crisis and attended an official programme at his residence.

The high-voltage political drama unfolded on Tuesday after Mulayam removed Akhilesh from the post of the party's state chief and named Shivpal in his place.

In retaliation, Akhilesh stripped Shivpal of four key portfolios, striking a huge blow to his uncle's public image. This brought the family feud out in the open with observers saying this could seriously damage SP's prospects in the 2017 assembly polls.

Even before meeting Mulayam, Shivpal, in his native village Saifai, had hinted that he would not serve under Akhilesh. The CM, on the other hand, is learnt to have stopped all communication with his father and uncle. Now, all eyes are on Friday's parliamentary board meeting for a solution to the spiralling crisis.