Even as Akhilesh Yadav has emerged stronger in Uttar Pradesh politics, the Samajwadi Party has become weaker due to family feud, reports Virendra Singh Rawat.
Triggering speculation in political circles, Akhilesh paid a sudden visit to the Raj Bhawan when he was in the middle of a meeting with party legislators and seniors to finalise details of his proposed 'rath yatra' from November 3.
A summary of the country's athletes performed at the Tokyo Games on Wednesday, August 4.
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".
The Hyderabad MP had earlier announced thatthe AIMIM will contest 100 seats in Uttar Pradesh polls scheduled early next year.
Apparently hinting at Amar Singh, UP CM says 'we will not let outsiders drive a wedge between us'.
Congress' poll strategist Prashant Kishor on Tuesday held a two-hour meeting with Samajwadi Party supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav, who is trying to cobble together an alliance of like-minded parties ahead of Uttar Pradesh assembly polls due early next year.
The Bharatiya Janata Party on Monday demanded a high-level inquiry into Samajwadi Party leader Shivpal Yadav's allegations of opium smuggling and using charas against Union Steel Minister Beni Prasad Verma. "Shivpal Yadav is a senior (state) cabinet minister and if he has levelled allegations against the union minister, he must have done it responsibly. A high-level inquiry should be conducted into the matter," said state BJP chief spokesman Vijay Bahadur Pathak.
The BJP ally Nishad Party, which represents the OBC fisher communities "welcomed" the court order, saying that the state government's previous notifications on the issue were flawed and "unconstitutional".
While Modi had a party and an organisation that supported him, all Mulayam, a self-made man with no inheritance in politics, had was a set of (fairly flexible) beliefs.
The meeting between Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav and Amar Singh is a "good beginning" and if Singh gives any proposal to rejoin the party it will be considered, senior party leader Shivpal Yadav said on Tuesday.
Yadav struck deals with the Bahujan Samaj Party, the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Congress whenever needed to form or save the governments led by him in Uttar Pradesh.
Uttar Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister and former state BJP president Keshav Prasad Maurya had also dropped a hint in a recent tweet, saying Yaduvanshi (Yadavs), Ravidasiyo (Jatavs) and Pasmanda Muslims will be brought closer to the BJP so that the lotus 'blossoms' in every booth in UP.
Mulayam's last rites will be performed with full state honours in Saifai near Etawah in Uttar Pradesh
The crisis showed no signs of ending but party sources said that the chief minister may be persuaded to relent on the issue of portfolios by returning the key departments.
Athletics Federation of India (AFI) has installed a special strength-building German machine for the use of the country's elite javelin throwers like Olympic-bound Neeraj Chopa and Shivpal Singh at the Netaji Subhas National Institute of Sports in Patiala.
Several legislators in states on Monday said they have cross-voted in favour of National Democratic Alliance nominee Droupadi Murmu by not following their respective party lines in the presidential election.
SP and SBSP leaders had shared the dais in Mau on Wednesday and announced that they would together trounce the BJP in the 2022 elections.
The parties seem to have forgotten their two decade-old antagonism for a 'political revolution' which they hope would 'last long'.
Akhilesh Yadav has instructed party MLAs to vote for opposition candidate Meira Kumar, SP patron Mulayam Singh Yadav and his brother Shivpal Yadav might go in favour of NDA's nominee Ram Nath Kovind.
The Rajya Sabha member was not keeping well for the past few days and was admitted to a private hospital in Lucknow, where he died around 7 pm.
Leaders from across the political spectrum criss-crossed the entire state to woo the voters but Mulayam mostly kept indoors.
'Mulayam has by design cornered the people's attention back to the party and Akhilesh.' 'People were only talking of Modi and demonetisation, but now suddenly everybody is talking of Akhilesh and the SP.' 'My personal subjective impression is that the SP is neck and neck with the BJP.'
Javelin thrower Shivpal Singh makes cut for World Championships
With Diwali failing to thaw strained ties in the Mulayam clan, a show of strength is on the cards as Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav takes out his 'Rath Yatra' on November 3, two days before ruling SP's silver jubilee show organised by his uncle Shivpal Yadav.
Besides the murder charges, the Barwala police had also invoked offences of wrongful confinement in the two FIRs.
Mulayam in his address to party workers once again trained his guns at cousin Ramgopal accusing him of conspiring to break the party.
Singh, who was accused by the Akhilesh camp of trying to destroy the party, thanked SP patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav, and his brother Shivpal Yadav, the state party chief, for standing by him and described Mulayam as the 'core' and 'father' of the Samajwadi Party.
Mulayam has convened a meeting on Saturday of the 393 candidates who have been allotted tickets by him. Party insiders said the meeting was very crucial as the SP chief was likely gauge the sentiments of the candidates and conduct a fresh review of the list amid fears that the battle for control in SP left the party cadres divided and highly confused at grassroots level.
Several SP leaders fear Muslim voters may shift loyalty, which will benefit rivals like the BJP.
"There is no matbhed (difference) or manbhed (ill feelings) among our leaders," Yadav said.
The Samajwadi Party is headed for yet another father-son showdown.
In a major development in the ongoing Samajwadi Party feud, Mulayam Singh Yadav has postponed the national convention of party called by him on January 5.
'It is possible that Akhilesh has set his sights on 2022.' 'By then, his present day enemies will be more or less a spent force while he himself will still have a clean image and, at 49, will be regarded as young.'
With their high-decibel campaigns so far, the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Samajwadi Party may appear to be locked in a direct fight in Uttar Pradesh.
Mulayam laid bare his anger for the first time after the SP's defeat in the UP assembly election fought under the leadership of Akhilesh.
The war in Samajwadi Party was far from over on Sunday with a defiant Ram Gopal Yadav declaring Akhilesh Yadav as party president at the national convention in Lucknow which was declared as "unconstitutional" by supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav.
Ramgopal was expelled from the party for six years on October 23.
On chances of taking uncle Shivpal Yadav's Pragatisheel Samajwadi Party Lohia along in the polls, he said, "I dont have any problem in this. He and his men will be given due honour".
With several political stalwarts of Uttar Pradesh no longer on the scene, it will be keenly watched how their children lead at the hustings this time without their formidable presence.
