Rift in Yadav family resurfaces
Tribune News Service
Lucknow, August 5
It does not seem all is well in the UP’s Yadav clan as differences between Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav and his estranged uncle Shivpal Singh Yadav have again come out in the open.
After lying low for months, Shivpal has asserted that while he had no misgivings about talking to SP president Akhilesh Yadav, he hardly engaged with nephew Akhilesh, making it clear that the old wounds had far from healed.
Trouble in the SP had started in September 2016 when then national president Mulayam Singh Yadav replaced son Akhilesh as the state unit chief with his brother Shivpal. In retaliation, Akhilesh had removed uncle Shivpal and his aides from the Cabinet and called an emergency national meeting on January 1, 2017. At the meeting, Akhilesh was elected the national president in place of his father Mulayam Singh Yadav, who is now a mentor to the party.
Uncle Shivpal was left high and dry after being removed from all party posts.
Now, Akhilesh Yadav’s sister-in-law Aparna Yadav (wife of Mulayam’s younger son Prateek Yadav) has also given a statement contradicting the party’s official stand on the Assam’s National Registrar of Citizens. Aparna said: “There is no problem with legal immigrants. Problem arises when people start entering the country unlawfully. I think Mamata ji should not have made a statement supporting illegal immigrants. It’s an issue of national security.”