Akhilesh Yadav and uncle Shivpal have been in a tussle that has split Samajwadi Party supporters.
It was a long Friday morning that brought nephew Akhilesh Yadav and uncle Shivpal Yadav together in a meeting with Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav at his home in Lucknow today.
As the two leaders have darted in and out of conference with Mulayam Singh, who is laying down the law as he hammers out a truce, their supporters did battle.
About 50 supporters of Shivpal Yadav sat outside his 7 Kalidas Marg house and shouted slogans grabbing. When Shivpal T-shirts were sent out from inside the house, there was a scramble for them and many proudly wore them at once. Vivek Bhadoria, a 30-year-old supporter said he did not want to be seen grabbing a T-shirt, but stated, "Shivpal is a man of the masses. He comes to Etawah where I am from and regularly interacts with us. He has his ears to the ground."
Right next door, at Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav's official residence, there was hardly anyone around. But that did not mean his supporters were inactive; they have been online.
The Akhilesh Yadav Fans Club on Facebook posted a photo of the young chief minister with the legend - "I am with Akhilesh, are you?" It has 21,000 likes and more than a thousand comments like, "We all are with you sir, you are our hero, you are future, you are development, you are growth to every person in UP..."
Others talk about his modern governance and applaud the 44-year-old for his development work over the last few years, especially roads and hospitals.
Their supporters' approach reflects the different leadership styles of the two Samajwadi Party men now at loggerheads. Akhilesh Yadav is extremely tech savvy, with a strong Twitter and Facebook presence. He has put most departments in the UP government, including the state police, online to ensure prompt response.
Ahead of assembly elections he is attempting to re-brand the UP government as clean, responsive and sensitive and is said to resent having been given little elbow room by people like uncle Shivpal Yadav in governing the state the way he has wanted.
Shivpal Yadav is known as a man of the masses, someone who is in touch with the party cadre on ground. Those who support him say that unlike the chief minister, he regularly tours the state, preferring to meet and interact with workers one on one.
Their differences deepened after Akhilesh scuttled Shivpal's plan to merge don Mukhtar Ansari's party 'Quami Ekta Dal' with the Samajwadi Party.