Will abide by Netaji decision: Shivpal
KANPUR: Breaking his silence a day after chief minister Akhilesh Yadav stripped him of key portfolios, senior Samajwadi Party (SP) leader Shivpal Yadav on Wednesday said that he will abide by the decision of party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav.
“Netaji (Mulayam Singh Yadav) is our leader. No one has the courage to defy his decision. I will go by whatever he decides,” Shivpal said at SL Memorial School, which is run by his family.
Indirectly endorsing Mulayam’s formula that Akhilesh should run the government and Shivpal should look after the organisation, he said, “Netaji has given me the responsibility to head the organisation after due consideration. Elections are drawing closer. I will strengthen the party and make it ready for polls. Our work is before the people and I have full faith in them,” he said.
When asked about key ministries being taken away from him, Shivpal categorically denied any rift with the chief minister.
“It is the discretion of the chief minister and he acted within his rights. Where is the problem,” he asked. Though Shivpal asserted that he was not angry with anyone, he said that those holding responsible positions should not take decisions under the influence of anyone. Shivpal, who has been camping in his native village Saifai since Tuesday evening, softened his stance after his wife Sarla Yadav and son Aditya Yadav, who is the chairman of Uttar Pradesh Pradeshik Cooperative Federation, reached Saifai at 3am to defuse the situation.
They held discussion with Shivpal for hours before he addressed the media on Wednesday. Throughout the night, Shivpal’s supporters stood outside his house in Saifai, occasionally shouting slogans in his support.
Hours after his removal as SP’s state unit chief and appointment of Shivpal as his replacement on Tuesday, Akhilesh stripped his uncle of PWD, irrigation and cooperative portfolios.
Differences in Yadav family came out in the open after the chief minister removed chief secretary Deepak Singhal, who is considered close to Shivpal.
The action triggered a chain of developments that saw SP supremo removing his son as the party’s state unit chief, replacing him with his brother Shivpal.
Mulayam also met Amar Singh and sacked minister Gayatri Prajapati at his Delhi residence on Wednesday morning.