LUCKNOW: In the rollercoaster crisis engulfing the Samajwadi Party on Sunday, Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav seemed to have got the upper hand. After sacking his uncle and state SP chief Shivpal Yadav, Akhilesh Yadav also got the endorsement of majority party MLAs — with some stating that as many as 183 MLAs turned up for the meeting called at the CM’s residence. Party chief and father Mulayam Singh Yadav retaliated by sacking his cousin Ram Gopal Yadav — shocking political and media circles in the state.While neither Akhilesh nor Mulayam look on verge of splitting the party, a vertical division was evident among cadres and senior leaders. In a high-voltage drama, Akhilesh rubbished talk of plan to split the party, but sacked Shivpal soon afterwards.Shivpal in consultation with Mulayam hit back within hours to sack their cousin and SP’s powerful general secretary Ram Gopal from the party, stunning the Akhilesh camp.The CM also got a resolution passed by party MLAs, which was seen as giving signals that he had the support of majority MLAs, and counter any efforts to destabilise his government.There were no signs of the family feud, which has now escalated into a war, receding anytime soon but both sides also dropped enough signals that there was going to be no split within the SP.Akhilesh had convened a meet of party MLAs and ministers at his official residence on Sunday, where an overwhelming majority of SP MLAs arrived. Senior leaders, however, advised Akhilesh to ensure that there was no sloganeering or burning effigies or posters by his enthusiastic supporters. He was also told not to give any statement to the media in anger.Stiffening his stand, Akhilesh did not invite senior minister and uncle Shivpal and 16 of his hardcore supporting MLAs and 5 MLCs for the meeting. Some prominent ministers of the Shivpal camp like Sahib Singh Saini who arrived at the CM’s bungalow uninvited for the meeting were told to go back. Only eight MLAs were with Shivpal at his residence.At the closed-door meeting, in which leaders were not even allowed to take their mobiles, Akhilesh gave an emotional speech and said all talk of his trying to create a new party was false. “Netaji (Mulayam Singh Yadav) is my father and I will serve him the rest of my life. The talk of creating a new party is wrong. Those who speak against Netaji will be taken to task,” he said.Akhilesh said he was Mulayam’s inheritor and on his birthday on November 22, will gift him the Lucknow-Agra expressway, which was a symbol of development and infrastructure work carried out by his government.He also said that while he will take out the Samajwadi Vikas Rath Yatra on November 3, he will also take part in the SP’s silver jubilee program on November 5, an indication that there was no imminent parting of ways with the older generation.He was, however, scathing in his attack on Amar Singh calling him a ‘dalal’ (fixer) and stating that all those who support Singh will have to go.The proceedings of the meeting were videographed and a resolution expressing faith in the leadership and development work of Akhilesh was passed by the MLAs.Seemingly emboldened by the strong turnout of MLAs, Akhilesh shortly afterwards sent a letter to Raj Bhawan sacking Shivpal and three of his core group ministers — Om Prakash Singh, Shadab Fatmia and Narad Rai — from the government. His sudden move after sending positive vibes took the cadres by surprise.‘ATTEMPT TO SABOTAGE SP’“Now accusations are being made against me directly. We will go to polls now under the leadership of Netaji (Mulayam). There is an attempt to sabotage the SP by a family member. Some are working for the BJP. The chief minister should have tried to understand this. But we will go to polls now.We won the last election in Netaji’s name and will win again in his name,” Shivpal said.A meeting of party seniors led by Speaker Mata Prasad Pandey, Beni Prasad Pandey, Reoti Raman Singh and Kiranmoy Nanda with Mulayam could not thrash out a solution to the family feud.Shivpal’s sacking was followed by a closed-door meeting between him and Mulayam. After the meeting, Shivpal said that SP’s general secretary and MP Ram Gopal Yadav was being sacked from the party. Ram Gopal was Akhilesh’s biggest supporter and had earlier in the day issued a letter saying those with Akhilesh will win. He had said that those with Akhilesh were the ones who shed their blood for the party and on the other side were those who swindled crores and indulged in manipulations.Shivpal said that Ram Gopal was a BJP agent and had met senior BJP leaders thrice. “Ram Gopal Yadav is damaging the party on BJP’s instigation.He is doing this because his son and daughter-in-law are in the CBI net in the Yadav Singh scam. The CM is unable to see this. Ram Gopal Yadav broke up the mahagathbandhan alliance in Bihar.We will not tolerate humiliation of Netaji. In view of these, action is being taken against him and he has been sacked from the party and all posts,” Shivpal told ET.He said Ram Gopal always worked with a coterie and never promoted cadres and workers. “He humiliated veteran socialist Mohan Singh and did not go to see Janeshwar Mishra and Mulayam Singh when they were hospitalised,” Shivpal said.Ram Gopal retaliated by saying the sacking wasn’t hurtful but the reasons given were. He also said Mulayam had invited PM Modi to Saifai.The sacking of Ram Gopal, who is a cousin of Mulayam and Shivpal, and branding him a BJP agent would make his comeback difficult for now as elections are round the corner.This leaves no room for maneuvering or thrashing out a compromise between the Shivpal and Akhilesh camps.The Shivpal camp was gearing up for a show of strength at a high-level meeting of SP MLAs and district chiefs that Mulayam had called on Monday. The camp is of the view that they lobby MLAs and issue a list of legislators who are on their side in order to neutralise the resolution passed at Akhilesh’s meeting.