Shivpal Yadav who was divested of key ministries met Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav on Thursday evening
Highlights
- Hours after meeting Akhilesh Yadav, Shivpal Yadav resigns from UP cabinet
- The two had a 20-minute meeting to end the feud within Samajwadi Party
- Akhilesh Yadav refused to return key portfolios to uncle Shivpal Yadav
Hours after meeting Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav, his uncle Shivpal Yadav resigned from the state cabinet and as the chief of Samajwadi Party's state unit, indicating a failure of the efforts to broker peace. The Chief Minister is yet to accept it, sources said. The two had a 20-minute meeting last evening in what was seen as a bid to end the feud that has shaken the party five months before the state assembly elections.
Here are the latest developments in this big story:
The resignation came after Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav refused to return key portfolios to Shivpal Yadav that he had been divested of earlier this week, sources said.
On Thursday, Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh came down from Delhi in a bid to find a solution to the crisis. Though he is living in the same house with the Chief Minister, it is not known if the two have met.
Mulayam Singh has already met Shivpal, his favourite brother, twice, to hear his part of the story. On Wednesday, Shivpal had rushed off to Delhi for a four-hour meeting. The two met again this afternoon after Mulayam Singh reached Lucknow.
The rift within had been growing for months but the crisis came on Tuesday, hours after Mulayam Singh removed Akhilesh as the state party chief and appointed Shivpal. The move was widely seen as a punishment for the Chief Minister's run-in with Shivpal.
Late on Tuesday evening, the Chief Minister had divested Shivpal Yadav - a key minister in the state government - of all his crucial portfolios, leaving him with only the social welfare ministry.
The leaders claim there is no dispute within the family and call the feud a "conspiracy" by outsiders.
Without naming anyone, Akhilesh Yadav has said, "If people from outside the family keep interfering, how will things work?" Many interpret the statement as a reference to Amar Singh, who returned to the Samajwadi Party recently after a six-year exile.
Many party leaders believe that Amar Singh is in league with Shivpal Yadav in a plan to turn Mulayam Singh against his son. It is also believed that he had engineered the shifting of Akhilesh Yadav from the post of the state party chief.
The feud, five months before the elections has drawn opposition jibes. The Chief Minister, Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi said, was trying to change the image of his government by "replacing tyres of his damaged cycle" but it was too late.
Calling the whole episode a "drama in the absence of any tangible work done by the SP government," BSP chief Mayawati advised Mulayam Singh to retire.
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