Political uncertainty clouded Uttar Pradesh after Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav was publicly attacked and called a “liar” by his uncle and Samajwadi Party’s Uttar Pradesh unit chief Shivpal Yadav at the ruling party’s all-important meeting in Lucknow on Monday.
A late evening meeting called to broker a truce between Akhilesh and Shivpal by the SP supremo, Mulayam Singh Yadav, ended in a stalemate. The Chief Minister is reportedly under tremendous pressure from his uncle to quit.
Although Mulayam stopped short of expelling his son and taking over as Chief Minister, Akhilesh was left in tears at the party meeting after being pushed around and humiliated by both his father and uncle.
Reports from Lucknow suggest that Shivpal has refused to accept Akhilesh as Chief Minister and is planning to expel 10 of his supporters from the party.
Supporters clash Outside the SP office, supporters of Akhilesh and Shivpal clashed with each other through the day.
There was high drama at the party meeting when Akhilesh accused party General Secretary Amar Singh of “conspiring” against him, which led to Shivpal snatching the mike from him and calling him a liar in full public view. Mulayam told Akhilesh that his bête noire Amar Singh and Shivpal Yadav will remain in the party.
Support for Amar “Amar Singh has helped me a lot... he is my brother. I cannot tolerate anything against Amar Singh and Shivpal. Amar Singh saved me from jail,” Mulayam said.
Akhilesh said Amar Singh is conspiring to unseat him. “There is a conspiracy against me by Amar Singh. Reports are being planted against me in newspapers, they call me Aurangzeb and they call you Shahjahan,” he said.
But neither side receded from its position.
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