Delhi confidential: Shrinking clout?

Shrinking clout? At least two Samajwadi Party senior leaders, who were seen in the Mulayam Singh Yadav camp, have given hints that they are more inclined to go with Akhilesh, rather than his father. Mulayam stayed away from the state convention of the party but Samajwadi leaders Azam Khan and Beni Prasad Verma, who have […]

samajwadi party, mulayam singh yadav, sharad yadav, jdu, gujarat, Vijay Rupani, Gujarat Sadan, gujarat elections, Akhilesh Yadav, indian express news

Mulayam stayed away from the state convention of the party but Samajwadi leaders Azam Khan and Beni Prasad Verma, who have a long association with Mulayam, were present at the Lucknow meet on Saturday.

Shrinking clout?

At least two Samajwadi Party senior leaders, who were seen in the Mulayam Singh Yadav camp, have given hints that they are more inclined to go with Akhilesh, rather than his father. Mulayam stayed away from the state convention of the party but Samajwadi leaders Azam Khan and Beni Prasad Verma, who have a long association with Mulayam, were present at the Lucknow meet on Saturday. Azam, who played both sides during the father-son rift, publicly said he was with the inheritor of Netaji’s legacy. He suggested that his son will now be with Akhilesh as well. Beni Prasad, who was with Mulayam earlier this year and paid a price when Akhilesh denied his son a ticket, also attended the meeting.

Grandfather Sharad

Rebel JD(U) leader Sharad Yadav took a break from political activity for a few days. He was playing affable grandfather to his daughter Subhashini’s newborn son. He was busy visiting the hospital and also put out the news on his Twitter handle. He told journalists calling him: “No politics. I am busy in a family affair.” Yadav was back in the rough and tumble of politics on Sunday addressing a Rashtriya Bahujan Samanway Sammelan.

Gujarat address

Gujarat seems to have gained such political weight that the Gujarat Sadan has found an address next to the Congress headquarters on 24, Akbar Road. On Monday, Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani will lay the foundation for Gujarat Sadan at 25-B, Akbar Road, a few steps across from the Congress headquarters.

New on the banner

The Samajwadi Party state convention in Lucknow seems to have added two leaders to its pantheon of iconic ideological guides from contemporary history. While Samajwadi founder Mulayam Singh Yadav and party president Akhilesh Yadav had the largest images on the backdrop on the dais in Lucknow on Saturday, there were two relatively new faces — Mohan Singh and Brij Bhushan Tiwari — among the mugshots of socialist icons JP, Lohia, Karpoori Thakur and Janeshwar Mishra. Incidentally, both were considered close to Mulayam.

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