Mulayam Singh Yadav and Akhilesh Yadav. (File Photos)
After being unanimously re-elected as the Samajwadi Party’s national president for a five-year term, Akhilesh Yadav on Saturday met his father Mulayam Singh Yadav and sought blessings. Akhilesh Yadav drove over to his father’s house to take his blessings, party spokesman Rajendra Chaudhary said. The father son duo were together for over half an hour according to Chaudhary. Prior to this, Akhilesh Yadav had invited his father to SP’s Agra convention where om October 5 he was re-elected party president. But Mulayam Singh Yadav alongwith brother Shivpal Yadav were not a part of this event.
Akhilesh Yadav’s re-election was announced by senior SP leader Ram Gopal Yadav at the SP national convention here. The party’s constitution was amended to extend the tenure of the party chief to five years from the existing three years. Now that 44-year-old Akhilesh will remain at the helm for five years, the 2019 Lok Sabha and state Assembly elections in 2022 will be held under his presidentship.
The SP has witnessed a feud between Akhilesh Yadav and Shivpal Singh Yadav and party workers have been hoping for a reconciliation. During the Agra convention also, speaker after speaker had referred to Mulayam Singh Yadav’s absence from the venue. Before the election of Akhilesh Yadav as the SP chief, both of them had spoken to each other on the phone. Apparently to send a message of all-is-well in the Yadav clan, Akhilesh had yesterday said that his estranged uncle Shivpal blessed and congratulated him over telephone.
