UP Elections 2017: Akhilesh Yadavs stepmother Sadhna says she wants to see him as Chief Minister again
A day before Uttar Pradesh votes in the last round of assembly elections, Samajwadi Party patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav's wife Sadhna Yadav has said she wants to see Akhilesh Yadav as chief minister again. She also said she would like her son Prateek to be a politician. Sadhna Yadav is Akhilesh's stepmother and is reported to have played a major role in his estrangement with his father Mulayam Singh, who he ousted as party chief earlier this year.
Mrs Yadav has denied being a powerful behind-the-scenes player in the long drawn out feud in the Samajwadi Party's first family just before the crucial UP elections.She said she wanted the Samajwadi Party to be re-elected and "Akhilesh to become CM again," but also stated that "no matter what, nobody should have disrespected Netaji, it is he who founded and nurtured the party."
Ms Yadav also that she has "been more in conversation with Akhilesh since January 1st, than I have been in the last five years."
Early this year, Akhilesh Yadav dethroned his father as Samajwadi Party chief proving in a dispute which reached the Election Commission that a majority of the party backed him over Mulayam Singh Yadav. It ended an intense power tussle between Akhilesh and his uncle Shivpal Yadav, who was supported by Mulayam Singh or Netaji as he is called.
Sadhna Yadav, her son Prateek and his wife Aparna Yadav are counted in the Shivpal Yadav camp and Mrs Yadav has also lamented that her brother-in-law was "insulted," noting that he "has done a lot for Netaji and the party."Sadhna Yadav is Mulayam Singh's second wife and her son Prateek Yadav is a businessman, one of the few members of the Yadav clan not actively involved in politics. His wife Aparna contested the assembly elections this year.
Mulayam Singh - sidelined completely from the selection of party candidates and other key decisions like an alliance with the Congress - campaigned only for daughter-in-law Aparna and brother Shivpal in the assembly elections, compared to 300 rallies that he had addressed in assembly elections five years ago.
Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav has contested the UP elections in partnership with the Congress against his father's wish that the Samajwadi Party contest alone.
The UP elections are being held in seven phases and votes will be counted on Saturday, March 11.