Among the bigwigs are Union ministers Amit Shah (Gandhinagar), Jyotiraditya Scindia (Guna), Mansukh Mandaviya (Porbandar), Parshottam Rupala (Rajkot), Pralhad Joshi (Dharwad) and SP Singh Baghel (Agra).
Electoral setbacks and thwarted ambition can have an unpredictable effect on leaders,, observes Aditi Phadnis.
Mulayam Singh Yadav wrote to Rajya Sabha Chairman Hamid Ansari informing him about the expulsion of Ramgopal Yadav.
'Akhileshji has to protect his political turf and if it means confronting his father, snapping ties with him and forming another party, so be it.'
Akhilesh Yadav replaced his nephew Tej Pratap Yadav and decided to contest the Kannauj seat himself.
Ramgopal was expelled from the party for six years on October 23.
Ruling alliance members heartily cheered Yadav with chants of 'Jai Shri Ram'.
Udayveer Singh, a first time Member of Legislative Council, wrote a 'private letter' to Mulayam Singh Yadav but it has now found its way into the media.
Mulayam will submit his resignation to the governor soon.
Mulayam said his son had promised to leave the post of party president after staying at the helm for three months, but he did not do so.
"SP National General Secretary Ram Gopal Yadav has written a letter to Khan informing him about Mulayam Yadav's decision to revoke his suspension," party sources said in Lucknow.
Leaders from across the political spectrum criss-crossed the entire state to woo the voters but Mulayam mostly kept indoors.
Insiders said Akhilesh's warring uncle Shivpal Yadav and Rajya Sabha member Amar Singh were not present at father-son meeting.
Amid the raging feud in Mulayam Singh Yadav's family, Samajwadi Party leader Ramgopal Yadav on Thursday said the leadership had committed a "mistake" by removing Akhilesh Yadav as party's UP president and that "differences" had arisen due to some "misunderstanding".
In an apparent reference to Ramgopal, Mulayam Singh said "one person has influenced his son" which has led to "problems in the party".
After staying away from campaigning till now, Samajwadi Party patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav on Saturday addressed his first rally where he sought votes for brother Shivpal, saying the election is important for both of them.
Mulayam Singh Yadav complained of uneasiness and breathing difficulty.
"There is no matbhed (difference) or manbhed (ill feelings) among our leaders," Yadav said.
Mulayam announced that sacked minister Gayatri Prajapati will be taken back in the UP cabinet.
Even though Mulayam Singh decided which ministers to drop and which ministers to lose their portfolios, the reshuffle is being projected as a reflection of Akhilesh Yadav's assertive self.
'You have been appointed general secretary of Samajwadi Party. I hope in the coming days you will strengthen the party in Uttar Pradesh assembly elections,' Mulayam said in a handwritten letter to Amar.
Samajwadi Party general secretary Amar Singh has blamed the party's loss in the Firozabad Lok Sabha bypoll on the overconfidence of its chief Mulayam Singh Yadav and said Yadav "behaved symbolically like Mayawati" while campaigning in the constituency.
The Samajwadi Party is headed for yet another father-son showdown.
A beaming Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Lalu Prasad Yadav visits Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav's residence in Lucknow to perform the 'shagun' ceremony ahead of his daughter Raj Lakshmi's wedding.
Shivpal Yadav said that his Mulayam will head the new party.
In a written submission before the Supreme Court on February 27, Mulayam Singh responded to the allegations against him. And his reply is an eye-opener
'If you interpret Akhilesh's statement, he is clearly saying Shivpal wants to become chief minister.'
Every day when Akhilesh returns after a joust with political adversaries to his Camelot, which is Lucknow's 5, Kalidas Marg, it is time to hold court with advisors and loyalists.
Several SP leaders fear Muslim voters may shift loyalty, which will benefit rivals like the BJP.
Mulayam on Sunday blamed the defeat on son Akhilesh's decision to ally with a Congress, which he said had tried its best to "ruin" him.
Shivpal Yadav is campaigning for Akhilesh Yadav's wife Dimple Yadav in Mainpuri seat, which fell vacant due to the death of Mulayam Singh Yadav.
The party's constitution was amended to extend the tenure of the party chief to five years from the existing three years.
Olympian Deepak Punia skipped the national trials, in Patiala on Saturday.
Soon after getting formally installed as Uttar Pradesh chief minister, Akhilesh Yadav has got down to giving shape to his core team of bureaucrats, many of whom were known to have been loyalists of his father and Samajwadi Party supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav.
Mulyama's remarks came against the backdrop of marathon meetings Congress' poll strategist Prashant Kishor had with him in Delhi and Lucknow.
But he doesn't want to shut the door completely on the Yadav family as that could create problems for him in 2019.
While Yadav began to tour different constituencies and address public meetings to mobilise the SP rank and file, he has concurrently started the tedious process of cobbling up an alliance of smaller outfits representing a mlange of castes and sub-castes, reports Virendra Singh Rawat.
Mulayam had slammed the SP-Congress alliance and said that the SP was capable of contesting elections alone.
As the war of words between Union minister Beni Prasad Verma and SP supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav reached a crescendo, Congress sought to maintain an arm's length from the imbroglio, describing it as "personal issues" between two individuals.
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