Samajwadi Party feud: Ram Gopal drops 'letter bomb', says future lies with Akhilesh; UP CM meets Mulayam ahead of key meet

The letter comes just ahead of Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav's key meet with party MLAs, MLCs

Lucknow: In yet another twist in the ongoing feud in the Samajwadi Party, general secretary Ram Gopal Yadav on Sunday wrote a one-page letter to party workers saying the future of the ruling party lay in the hands of Akhilesh Yadav. 

Ram Gopal, who wrote the letter to the party cadres, openly backed his nephew and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh and declared him as a clear worker. In the latter, he also urges his party workers to defeat Akhilesh's rivals. 

"Jahan Akhilesh, Wahan Vijay (victory follows Akhilesh)," the SP supremo's cousin and party general secretary Ram Gopal Yadav's letter read while asking the party workers to 'tighten the screw of Akhilesh's rivals'. 

The letter was released just a few hours ahead of the party meeting called by Akhilesh Yadav.

In his letter, Ram Gopal said that people with Akhilesh were those who have spilled blood for the party and made great sacrifices whereas those who "minted crores and misused power" were on the other side.

The national party general secretary said while their thinking was positive, others were of a negative mindset. The letter was released around 6.30 in the morning. He is understood to have written from Mumbai.

While no names have been taken, the political overtones in the letter suggest that he was alluring to the other side led by his elder brother Mulayam Singh Yadav.

The letter comes hours before a crucial meeting of party legislators called by Akhilesh at his official residence, where many feel, he could come out with his vision of the road ahead.

Speculation is rife here that the Chief Minister has thrown in the towel and now of the view that only his complete sway over the party decisions could alter the situation and salvage the SP's image, specially before the forthcoming state assembly polls which are just a few months away.

Party veterans led by Rajya Sabha members Reoti Raman Singh, Beni Prasad Verma, Naresh Agarawal and Kironmoy Nanda, who tried to broker truce between the warring father and son on Saturday, will meet the Samajwadi Party patriarch on Sunday at around 10.30 am.

At the same time, the Chief Minister has called a meet with 175 party legislators at his official 5, Kalidas Marg residence at 11am today.

According to sources, neither Shivpal Singh Yadav, who is an MLA from Jaswantnagar, has been invited to the meeting nor many of the legislators who support him. CM Akhilesh, who has called the meeting today, has excluded an altogether 75 legislators, close to Shivpal Singh, from the meet.

The sources said there was no official word in this regard. Shivpal, however, said he is going to attend the meeting if called.

On Friday, Shivpal had personally gone to invite Akhilesh for the two-day district presidents' meet of the party which the Chief Minister chose to skip and instead called some of them to his official residence for a chat.

Political observers here feel that the infighting in the party has come to a situation of no return and that days to come would be turbulent, both for the party and the state.

(With agency inputs)