Akhilesh Yadav asks Mulayam to accept him as SP president for two months

Lucknow: In yet another sign of rapprochement in the Yadav clan, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav has asked Samajwadi Party founder Mulayam Singh Yadav to accept him as the party president till the elections are over, reports said on Wednesday.

Reports claimed that one of the ministers, considered to be close to Akhilesh, today met Mulayam to convince him to accept UP CM's appointment as SP president.

Mulayam and Akhilesh met here on Tuesday in what informed sources said was a last-minute bid to buy peace in the party but it proved unsuccessful with some serious issues remaining unsolved.

There were expectations of reconciliation as Akhilesh's warring uncle Shivpal and Amar Singh, often described as an outsider by the CM's camp, were kept out of today's confabulations. However, party insiders said the long meeting ended without finding any common ground.

With Ram Gopal Yadav on his side, Akhilesh is heading one faction, while party patriarch Mulayam is heading the other with Shivpal and Amar Singh standing tall with him.

On January 1, the Akhilesh faction had dislodged Mulayam as the party president and designated the former Defence Minister as a "marg darshak" (mentor).

Since then, both factions of the Samajwadi Party have approached the Election Commission to claim the election symbol "cycle" ahead of assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh.