With the infighting in the Samajwadi Party having reached a flashpoint, a deal in the process of being thrashed pout could see Mulayam Singh loyalist Amar Singh ousted from the party, besides Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister’s uncle and a key proponent of the anti-Akhilesh Yadav camp Shivpal Yadav relinquish his post and his constituency.
Sources informed India TV that a meeting between Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav and Amar Singh, whom the former had touted as a 'dalal', took place at Mulayam Singh Yadav's residence in Lucknow on Thursday night.
The meeting took place at around 8:30 pm in the presence of Mulayam and his younger brother Shivpal Singh Yadav.
It is believed that Amar reminded Akhilesh of all favours he had done during the early days to stress upon the point that he wasn’t his enemy, as the CM presumed. Amar told Akhilesh that he was the one who took him to Australia for his education.
Sources said that another round of meeting between Akhilesh and Mulayam is likely today where they will together work upon a formula to put an end to the drama that has derailed the party just ahead of Assembly polls.
The sources added that with Akhilesh remaining adamant on removing Amar Singh, Mulayam’s close aide has come forward to announce his decision to quit the Samajwadi Party.
Also, Akhilesh’s uncle, Shivpal, may resign from the party’s state unit president post and relinquish the Jaswant Nagar assembly constituency.
Azam Khan, the Muslim face of the Samajwadi Party who has been at the forefront of brokering a deal between the two factions, is of the view that Mulayam needs to be convinced to allow Akhilesh to take a call on ticket distribution process and lead the party at least till the elections are over.
Yesterday’s meeting between the SP’s bigwigs took place in the backdrop of Akhilesh Yadav successfully managing to collected signed affidavits from 206 MLAs and 55 MLCs declaring him the president of ruling Samajwadi Party.
The documents, PTI reported, will be furnished to the Election Commission before January 9 to claim that Akhilesh has the support of the majority of his party and its symbol of the ‘cycle’ should be awarded to him. The SP has 229 MLAs in the 403-chair House.
Further flexing his muscles, Akhilesh also directed a freeze on the party’s bank accounts, which are believed to have Rs 500 crore in party funds.
Uttar Pradesh will have seven-phase polling between February 11 and March 8. Results will be declared on March 11 (Saturday).
