Akhilesh Yadav sacked party veteran Balram Yadav yesterday as minister.
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav and BSP chief Mayawati are arch political rivals - they are known not to refer to each other by name. For once though, months before the crucial assembly elections in the state, they find themselves on the same side of the political fence, battling tensions within their parties.
Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav is fighting his family, and not for the first time. His powerful uncle, cabinet minister Shivpal Yadav, was instrumental in getting jailed politician Mukhtar Ansari's party merged with the SP on Tuesday -- this despite reservations of the chief minister, who is said to be against any criminals joining the party ahead of the UP polls.
On Tuesday evening, back from a district tour, the chief minister sacked a party veteran, Mulayam Singh Yadav's friend Balram Yadav, as minister for negotiating the merger.
On Wednesday, Shivpal met Akhilesh for over an hour and blamed the media for exaggerating. "Whatever has happened about the merger happened with the consent of Mulayam Singhji. As far as the minister's sacking is concerned, it is the prerogative of the chief minister whom he keeps and whom he drops," he said.
For Mayawati, a long-held allegation against her party, the BSP, was out in the open from one of its own senior leader Swami Prasad Maurya, who quit the party, saying, "Mayawati is killing BR Ambedkar's ideology. Tickets are being sold in the party".
Within 15 minutes, at a press conference, Ms Mayawati shot back: "I am very happy that Swami Prasad Maurya has quit the party and done us a favour. We were about to show him the door in a few days. He says I take money for tickets. I want to ask him to reveal how much he paid for his tickets for his son and daughter in previous elections."
There are indications that Mr Maurya will head for the BJP - which has escalated the pitch of its campaign and dissent in the opposition will only add to its confidence. "Earlier, these people were fighting among themselves. In 2014, we beat them both and that is what is going to happen any way in 2017," said Keshav Prasad Maurya, the BJP's state unit president.