Amidst the ongoing feud in Uttar Pradesh’s ruling party, the convention called by the Samajwadi Party patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav on January 5 was on Monday postponed.
In a series of tweets, SP leader Shivpal Yadav said that on the orders of Mulayam Singh Yadav, the convention called on January 5 has been postponed for now.
While Shivpal gave no reasons for the abrupt cancellation of the meeting, insiders said perhaps the Mulayam camp was apprehensive of a poor turnout compared to the massive gathering at the ‘convention’ held by Ram Gopal Yadav yesterday.
The convention was declared illegal and unconstitutional by Mulayam.
Shivpal in another tweet asked party workers to concentrate on their respective constituencies and work hard to win the elections.
Meanwhile, loyalists of the Samajwadi Party patriarch on Monday morning started up lining in the national capital to ensure that the ‘cycle’ symbol remains with Mulayam Singh Yadav against the backdrop of Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav seeking to take control of the party.
Amar Singh and Shivpal Singh Yadav, who were expelled from the party by the Akhilesh camp, have reached Delhi to fine tune the strategy to ensure that the symbol remains with Mulayam ahead of assembly polls in the state likely to be announced any day now.
Talking to reporters after returning from London, Amar said, “I was and will remain with Mulayam Singh Yadav. I was a hero. But I am now ready to become a khalnayak (villain) for him.”
Asked about his expulsion from the party by the Akhilesh camp, Amar said he will feel “hurt” only if Mulayam says anything against him.
“Once Mulayam Singh Yadav said that Amar Singh is not in our ‘dal’ (party) but in our ‘dil’ (heart). If Mulayam Singh Yadav expels me from his ‘dil’ then it will be regretful. There is no importance of party for me,” Amar said.
Taking a dig at some leaders, he said, “I never demanded Rajya Sabha seat from the party unlike other leaders who, with folded hands, pleaded for a berth in Rajya Sabha.”
Meanwhile, Shivpal, who has been removed as the UP unit chief of SP by the Akhilesh camp, said he would continue to be with Mulayam. “I will be with Mulayam till my last breath,” he said upon his arrival in Delhi.
The two, along with Mulayam and a few other leaders, will meet in the afternoon before approaching the Election Commission to ensure the symbol remains with Mulayam and is neither frozen or given to the Akhilesh camp.
The Samajwadi Party on Sunday split down the middle with the faction headed by Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav removing Mulayam as party chief and appointing him in his place at a convention in which the group claimed support of the majority of legislators and district units.
The two sides had engaged in mutual recriminatory expulsions with the convention called by Ram Gopal Yadav removing Akhilesh’s warring uncle Shivpal Yadav as state party chief, and showing the door to “outsider” Amar Singh, who has been blamed for the feud in the Yadav clan.
Mulayam had retorted by again expelling his cousin Ram Gopal for six years along with national vice president Kiranmoy Nanda, who chaired the convention, and general secretary Naresh Agarwal for taking part in it.
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Source: Rediff