Ram Gopal meets Yogi, SP says discussed backward, minority issues

The meeting held at the Chief Minister’s official residence lasted for around half-an-hour, it is learnt.

Yadav, considered number 2 in the party and a key adviser to former chief minister and party president Akhilesh Yadav, left without responding to media questions after the meeting.

SP chief spokesperson Rajendra Chaudhary said he did not have confirmed news about any such meeting.

The SP later tweeted, “Today, the chief national general secretary of Samajwadi Party, Professor Ram Gopal Yadav, met Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath in Lucknow. Talks were held in the context of persecution of backwards and Muslims across the state by filing false cases unilaterally. The government should take back the fake cases.”

Playing down the meeting, a section of party leaders said Yadav met Adityanath regarding alleged harassment of SP workers by the police and administration in different parts of the state.

A five-term member of Rajya Sabha, Yadav is seen as the second most influential leader in SP. He had backed Akhilesh during the feud in SP’s first family in 2016, when Akhilesh took over the party’s reins. A national general secretary of the party until then, Yadav was appointed SP’s secretary-general after Akhilesh took command in 2017.

Yadav’s meeting with Adityanath holds significance in the backdrop of recent political developments in UP. After the SP-led alliance lost the Assembly elections and subsequently the UP Legislative Council polls, as further embarrassment, it drew a blank in Lok Sabha bypolls to Azamgarh and Rampur seats — both considered SP strongholds.

A cousin of party’s founder and former CM Mulayam Singh Yadav, Ram Gopal had been active in the party’s organisation affairs and electoral campaigns in the past. But he largely remained missing from the campaign trail in both the Assembly polls and Lok Sabha bypolls — his presence at the odd rallies was seen as symbolic.

After the poor Assembly poll showing, and the Lok Sabha bypoll losses, the SP has only three MPs each in Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha.

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Last month, the party lost ally Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party (SBSP), which claims to have influence among non-Yadav OBCs in eastern UP. The SP has also parted ways with Shivpal Singh Yadav’s outfit.
After Shivpal, Akhilesh’s estranged uncle, and SBSP president Om Prakash Rajbhar cross-voted in support of the NDA nominee in the Presidential polls, the SP had issued letters to both, stating that they were free to go wherever they expected to get more respect.