There is no discord, says SP founder

Samajwadi Party (SP) president Akhilesh Yadav was seen with his father and party founder Mulayam Singh Yadav and uncle Shivpal Yadav at Saifai in Etawah district of Uttar Pradesh on the occasion of Diwali.

While there has been friction between the members of Mr. Mulayam's family in the recent past, he claimed on Thursday that there was “no discord.”

“My entire family is united and there is no discord. This is the reason that we have come to the village [Saifai] to celebrate Diwali,” he said.

Saifai, the native place of the clan, witnessed Mr. Akhilesh, Mr. Mulayam, Shivpal Yadav and MPs Dharmendra Yadav and Tej Pratap Yadav interacting with one another for nearly two hours. SP’s principal general secretary Ramgopal Yadav, who met Mr. Mulayam on Wednesday, however, did not participate in the meeting.

After the interaction, all the family members came out and sat in the lawn. There was a gap of a few chairs between Mr. Akhilesh and Mr. Shivpal.

Mr. Shivpal said, “Our entire family is one.”

Re-election of Akhilesh as SP president

On October 5, Mr. Akhilesh was unanimously re-elected as the SP’s national president for a five-year term, consolidating his grip over the party even as Mr. Mulayam and Mr. Shivpal appeared sidelined.

His re-election was announced by Mr. Ram Gopal at the SP national convention in Agra. The party’s constitution was amended to extend the tenure of the party chief to five years from the earlier three.

Personal invitation to father

Both Mr. Mulayam and Mr. Shivpal skipped the event just as they stayed away from the State executive meeting of the party in Lucknow on September 23.

Mr. Akhilesh had personally invited his father for the national convention. In his address, the former U.P. Chief Minister said, “I requested ‘netaji’ [Mr. Mulayam] to attend the convention. Everyone would have liked it [his presence].”