Senior Samajwadi Party (SP) leader Shivpal Singh Yadav showed the door to Akhilesh Yadav’s loyalists immediately after taking charge as the party state unit chief.
Shivpal, whose anointment as the state president of the party had triggered an all-out war within the Mulayam family, removed senior leaders Rajendra Chaudhary as party’s official spokesman and principal general secretary Arvind Singh Gope.
Both Chaudhary and Gope were ministers in the Cabinet and were considered to be close to Akhilesh.
Shivpal also expelled SP general secretary Ram Gopal Yadav’s nephew and member of the state Legislative Council Arvind Pratap Yadav from the party following charges of land grabbing and “patronising” the liquor mafia.
Ram had openly sided with Akhilesh during the family ‘feud’. Shivpal appointed former minister Ambika Chaudhary as the spokesperson and Om Prakash Singh will be the principal general secretary of the state unit, both of whom were known to be his loyalists.
Chaudhary and Singh had extended support to Shivpal when he resigned from the Cabinet in protest against the stripping of important portfolios by Akhilesh.
Major rejig
According to SP sources here, Shivpal will undertake a major reshuffle in the state unit and some other Akhilesh loyalists, too, could be ousted. “It is natural that the new state president will have only his loyalists in the key posts... after all he will need them to do what he wants,” remarked an SP leader, close to Shivpal.
Shivpal also addressed a meeting of the party workers here on Sunday, during which he exhorted them to remain united and ensure that the SP returned to power in the 2017 Assembly elections.
“Action will be taken against anyone found working against the party,” he warned.
All praise for Akhilesh Praising Akhilesh, Shivpal said that the state government had undertaken several measures for the weaker sections of the society and asked party workers to apprise the people of them.
Published 18 September 2016, 19:53 IST