Akhilesh meets Mulayam, asks party workers to gear up for 2019 Lok Sabha polls

Samajwadi Party Chief Akhilesh Yadav on Thursday was seen with his father Mulayam Singh Yadav at a public event in Lucknow on Thursday. This interaction in public took place after a long gap as the infighting in the Samajwadi Party has seen father and son opposing each other on many issues. 

The occasion was an event observing the death anniversary of Dr Ram Manohar Lohia at the Lohia park in Lucknow where they both had come to pay tribute to the socialist leader.

The father-son duo later posed before photographers. Akhilesh Yadav (44) also publicly touched the feet of the 77-year-old Samajwadi Party patron and later said he had his blessings.

The senior Yadav had earlier this morning visited the Lohia Trust office here and paid tributes to the leader with his brother Shivpal Yadav.

Later, addressing media persons at the SP headquarters, Akhilesh Yadav said that the "projects initiated by him are now being inaugurated by the BJP by removing his plaques".

Asking party workers to gear up for 2019 Lok Sabha polls, the SP chief said, "We have nothing to lose now. We will only gain. The people of the state are waiting for an opportunity to bring the SP back."

"We have to prepare for 2022 Assembly elections too. This government is not doing any development and people have understood that," he said.

The SP chief also attacked the Centre for implementing the GST "without any preparations", causing hardship to the trader community. 

On Mulayam, he said, "If a father glosses over his son's mistakes, he becomes misguided. There is a fight of ideologies in every family...". The former chief minister, however, did not elaborate.

(With PTI inputs)