Mulayam Singh Yadav tears off Shivpal's resignation, but truce not in sight

Lucknow, Sep 16 Samajwadi party (SP) chief Mulayam Singh Yadav on Friday rejected the resignation of younger brother and former PWD minister Shivpal Singh Yadav as the state party chief.

Sources told IANS that in the 15-minute one-on-one meeting at Mulayam Singh's 5, Vikramaditya Marg residence, the SP chief tore off Shivpal's resignation letter.

What transpired thereafter is not known and the two are likely to meet once again at the party headquarters, the sources said.

According to the sources, the SP chief, who has so far not been able to broker peace between the warring "chacha-bhatija", has made up his mind "for some tough decisions" which, an aide said "opened all possibilities".

Meanwhile, a large crowd of supporters thronged the residence of Shivpal Yadav and demanded that the "mantra ji" be reinstated with full dignity and that Akhilesh Yadav apologise to him.

"Shivpal ji has brought up Akhilesh Yadav as his son, would pedal for miles to take him to school as netaji was busy with politics. Is this the way you treat a person like him," asked an angry supporter.

Supporters, wearing t-shirts with images of Shivpal, also demanded action against party general secretary Ram Gopal Yadav, who had on Thursday termed Rajya Sabha member Amar Singh as the villain behind all the party's troubles.

Supporters of Shivpal who were shouting anti-Akhilesh slogans and threatened to go on fast and even indulge in self-immolation, said that it was, in fact, Ram Gopal Yadav who was behind the conspiracy to upstage the former minister.

Meanwhile, a string of legislators and some ministers, including former Mining Minister Gayatri Prajapati, met Shivpal at his official residence earlier in the day.

Assembly speaker Mata Prasad Pandey also drove up to Shivpal's house and spent some time behind closed doors with him. While it was rumoured that the SP parliamentary board will meet on Friday, there was no word on this as yet.

Akhilesh Yadav has already rejected Shivpal's resignation from the state cabinet. There was a brief meeting between the two on Thursday night at which both apparently remained dangers drawn.

An hour later, Shivpal, his wife Sarla and son Aditya Yadav faxed their resignation to Akhilesh Yadav and Mulayam Singh Yadav.

Aditya is an elected chairman of the Uttar Pradesh Cooperative Federation while Sarla Yadav is chairperson of the Etawah Cooperative Federation.

The move also explicitly proves that the theories of "sarkari ladai" and not a family feud were misplaced and something is terribly wrong within the first family of Uttar Pradesh.

IANS