Shivpal meets Akhilesh to say all is well in Mulayam family

Lucknow, Aug 19: Amid reports of differences between them, Shivpal Yadav, brother of SP chief Mulayam Singh Yadav, today met his nephew and Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav at his official residence here to send out a message that all is well in the family.

The 90-minute meeting is being seen as an attempt at reconcilation between Shivpal, a Cabinet Minister, and Akhilesh after intervention of the latter's father Mulayam. Later talking to mediapersons at his residence, Shivpal denied any "differences" within the family. "Where is it?...I can't see.

The family had met yesterday and is with each other today also. We (Akhilesh and Shivpal) were busy yesterday. So we sat together today," he said when asked to comment on reports of differences.

Shivpal had skipped a meeting of the state cabinet on Wednesday, adding fuel to speculation about his unhappiness, which was music to the ears of the opposition in view of the upcoming Assembly elections.

"He is Chief Minister and I am a minister, we have joint resonsibility in the government," he said. At the same time, Shivpal said he was "pained" when action was not taken against land grabbers and accepted that some "party office bearers" were involved in such "illegal" acts.

"It's my opinion that such persons should be sacked from the party," he said. Recently, even Mulayam had given a tongue lashing to SP lawmakers asking them to refrain from land grabbing and making easy money and instead concentrate on development work if they wanted to retain power in the state.

Exuding confidence that SP would form government again, and this time with a thumping majority, Shivpal said, "In 2017 we will get majority again and it will be bigger than 2012." SP had won 224 of the 403 UP Assembly seats last time and stormed to power.

PTI