The development is being seen as increase in Akhilesh's stature and strength within the party.
UP chief minister Akhilesh Yadav's camp got shot in the arm on Thursday with confidant Ramgopal Yadav's return in the Samajwadi Party (SP). Within weeks after his expulsion, party patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav reinstated Ramgopal with immediate effect by issuing a letter.
The development is being seen as increase in Akhilesh's stature and strength within the party. Ramgopal, cousin of Mulayam, is seen as an antithesis of Akhilesh's uncle Shivpal Yadav. SP leaders are unsure if this step will finally settle the dust within the party or would again create bad blood rivalry. They said, if bickering do not take place again, this would send a positive signal on the ground.
"This was bound to happen. Netaji (Mulayam Singh) was never against me. Netaji's heart is clean for me," Ramgopal Yadav.
Ramgopal would continue to serve in all his previous posts - leader of SP in Rajya Sabha, national general secretary, party spokesperson and member of party parliamentary board. Accepting his return with humiliation, Ramgopal said, he never went outside the party as his heart was always there and he never worked against the party.
Ramgopal, regarded as intellectual think tank of the SP, was expelled from the party on October 24 for six years by SP State president Shivpal Yadav on the orders of Mulayam Singh.
Possibility of Ramgopal's return looked bright on Wednesday itself when he spoke against Government's demonetization move in the Rajya Sabha. It conveyed that Mulayam Singh purposely not informed Rajya Sabha secretariat about Ramgopal's expulsion as he did not want to lose one the better speakers that has the skills to put across party's line in the Upper House.
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