Mulayam Singh Yadav removes Akhilesh Yadav confidant, Ramgopal Yadav, from Lohia Trust post
In a sign that efforts to get Mulayam Singh Yadav and son Akhilesh Yadav reconcile their differences ahead of a party conclave next month were headed south, the Samajwadi Party patriarch today sacked his son's confidant Ramgopal Yadav as secretary of the Lohia Trust, replacing him with his own, Shivpal Yadav.
The trust, an apolitical body dedicated to socialist leader Ram Manohar Lohia, is located just 200 metres from the Samajwadi Party headquarters in Uttar Pradesh capital Lucknow. Mulayam Singh Yadav heads the Lohia Trust.
At a meeting of the trust on August 8, he had replaced four Akhilesh Yadav loyalists with Shivpal camp followers. On Thursday, the 77-year-old leader axed Ramgopal Yadav too.
The non-stop churning in the trust is seen as an indicator that the divide between the father-son may not have bridged despite rapprochement efforts by several party leaders.
Some leaders such as Ram Govind Chaudhary, the leader of opposition in the assembly, have taken pains to stress that the Samajwadi Party was still united, and
a difference of opinion was "natural".
Such assertions will be put to test next month when the SP's national convention will be held in Agra on October 3. The party conclave is also slated to elect its president for a three-year term.
Akhilesh Yadav had snatched control of the party from his father this year that brought the party dangerously close to a split ahead of the Uttar Pradesh assembly elections.
Mulayam Singh had then backed down, but later delivered many public reminders to his son about his promise to return the party president's post that he had borrowed for the elections
and accused his son of betrayal. Akhilesh Yadav, 44, has consistently chosen to ignore the message for months.