While Ram Gopal Yadav and Akhilesh Yadav blamed Amar Singh indirectly, Shivpal Yadav came out in support of Singh.
In the Yadav vs Yadav crisis in Uttar Pradesh, it is Rajya Sabha MP Amar Singh who is being credited for family tiff. However, senior SP leader Shivpal Yadav on Thursday defended Singh by saying an organisation is strengthened by taking everyone along.
Asked about other SP leaders' "unhappiness" with Amar Singh, Shivpal said, "Taking everyone along makes an organisation stronger. There are all kinds of people in a party. One has to apply his mind also."
"If everyone becomes intelligent, all of them will be CM or netaji. Everyone cannot be Akhilesh or Mulayam," he told reporters at his residence.
Amar Singh and his history with Samajwadi Party
Amar Singh, the proverbial powerbroker in Indian politics played a vital role in striking many important political deals in the country in the last decade. His fortunes nosedived post cash-for-votes scam and was later dismissed from SP. Now, suddenly in 2016, Amar Singh finds himself in the midst of a family fight within the Yadav family that has the potential to unravel Samajwadi Party government in Uttar Pradesh.
Amar Singh who was once the general secretary of the party was expelled from the SP in February 2010. Following this, he floated his own political party, Rashtriya Lok Manch, in 2011 and contested in the 2012 UP assembly elections, and failed. Ahead of the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, he joined Rashtriya Lok Dal and contested from Fatehpur Sikri, but lost. In 2015, Amar Singh was brought back to Samajwadi Party by party supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav much against the wishes of other prominent party leaders.
Akhilesh blames 'outsider' for the crisis
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav, who had stripped his uncle Shivpal of key portfolios after SP supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav made him state unit chief, had blamed an "outsider" for the crisis.
"Where have you found a family fight? This is a fight in the government, not a family fight. If people outside the family intervene then how will the government function? Some decisions were taken with consultation with Netaji (Mulayam Singh) and some I took on my own," he said.
Ram Gopal Yadav also hits out at Amar Singh
Backing Akhilesh, party general secretary Ram Gopal Yadav also hit out at Amar Singh after his meeting with Akhilesh on Thursday, though he refrained from naming the Rajya Sabha MP.
Ram Gopal Yadav on Thursday was riled by questions on Amar Singh. "There is nothing like mulayamwadi..If someone is not Samajwadi, how can he be mulayamwadi," he said in response to queries on Singh, who was expelled in 2010 and rejoined the party a few months ago
Apparently attacking Singh, Ram Gopal said that due to "simplicity" of Mulayam, "those who have nothing to do with party's interest are able to take benefit".
"You also know this. Those who have nothing to do with party's interest take benefit of simplicity of netaji.... They harm the party.... All those who met me are saying so," he said.
"He is the same person, who used netaji's simplicity to make an incharge of the party (Shivpal was earlier made SP UP incharge). There is no such post in SP. They say you are being challenged.....There is no one in the party who can challenge netaji," Ram Gopal Yadav said.
When asked about Ram Gopal's statement that he was made party state incharge though there was no provision in the party for the same, Shivpal said, "The party president can take any decision. It is there in the party constitution."
Asked about losing important portfolios, he said, "I cannot raise questions on which circumstances the Chief Minister has changed my departments. It is his discretion...I have a big responsibility. It is bigger than getting portfolios. We have to form a majority government in the state in 2017. I was state president in 2011 and now netaji (Mulayam) has once again given me this responsibility. No one has the capacity to disobey what he says," Shivpal said.
Asked where he felt more comfortable -- running the government or in the organisation, Shivpal said he had vast experience and can run both.
(With PTI inputs)
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