Father-son split continues as Mulayam skips SP’s national meet

The hopes of reconciliation in the first family of the Samajwadi Party dashed as party’s patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav and his younger brother Shivpal Singh Yadav skipped the 10th National Convention of the party, dropping a hint that all is not well in the party as well as in the family.

Since morning, the venue was teeming with expectations of Mulayam Singh Yadav attending the meeting. Senior leaders were seen telling supporters that `Netaji’ would surely attend the meeting and a “special plane was waiting at Chaudhry Charan Singh airport to take him to Agra.” Announcements were also made to keep people interested.

The hopes were all but dashed by 11 AM and when it became clear that Mulayam would not be coming to Agra, the party leaders rushed with the day’s agenda, including introducing political and economic resolutions. The meeting ended much before 5 PM.

The thaw in the family was visible because of developments of a last few days when Akhilesh Yadav met Mulayam Singh at his residence in Lucknow and then spoke to Shivpal Singh Yadav over the phone when latter was in Etawah. These developments indicated that ice was melting in relations between the father and son as well as the nephew and uncle.

All eyes were on 5, Vikramaditya Marg – the residence of Mulayam Singh Yadav – since Thursday morning, with people speculating whether he will go to attend the national executive meeting or not. When the meeting started in Agra, Mulayam was closeted with his younger brother Shivpal Singh Yadav and former party leader Narad Rai. At around 10.30 AM, when Akhilesh was declared national president of the party, it became clear that Mulayam would not attend the meeting anymore.

Shivpal Yadav had earlier claimed that he would not be attending the meeting as he was neither a member of the national executive nor held a party post. “My attending national convention is not judicious at all. But if Netaji asks me to go and attend the meeting, I will do the same,” he had said.

Mulayam’s presence in the party’s meeting would have been a shot in the arm for Akhilesh Yadav. Recently, Mulayam had praised Akhilesh publically and had even refused to announce the launch of a party despite cajoling from a section of leaders. Akhilesh too knows that Mulayam’s presence is mandatory for infusing a new lease of life in the party. Therefore, in his address, he took Mulayam Singh’s name repeatedly throwing a hint among his supporters that Netaji was still the tallest leader of the party.

“I had told Netaji (Mulayam) that if you come in, we will be honoured. I called him yesterday and today too before reaching the venue. I told him, if you don’t bless us, we will not progress. Netaji blessed me over the phone,”Akhilesh said.

He even said: “Kiranmoy Nanda (the national vice president) too got blessings from Netaji in the morning.”