Mulayam Replaces Son Akhilesh With Brother Shivpal As UP Samajwadi Party Chief  

Samajwadi Party (SP) supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav on Tuesday replaced his son and Uttar Pradesh chief minister Akhilesh Yadav as the state unit chief with his brother and senior minister Shivpal Singh Yadav, in a sign of widening rift within the party.

“SP President Mulayam Singh Yadav has appointed you as the president of the Uttar Pradesh unit. It is hoped that with your hard work, you will further strengthen the party,” SP national general secretary Ram Gopal Yadav said in a letter addressed to Shivpal Singh Yadav.

A copy of the letter was also marked to Akhilesh Yadav.

The development came hours after Akhilesh removed state chief secretary Deepak Singhal , considered close to Shivpal Singh, and replaced him with Rahul Bhatnagar.

Singhal had taken over as chief secretary nearly two months ago.

Disagreements between Akhilesh and Shivpal have been reported on several occasions in the past, including on the choice of official to be appointed as the state’s chief secretary after Alok Ranjan’s term ended, and the postponement of Qaumi Ekta Dal’s merger with SP.

QED is headed by mafia-turned-politician Mukhtar Ansari.

Akhilesh Strips Uncle Shivpal Yadav Of Key Ministerial Portfolios

As a consequence of his father’s action of removing him from the party chief post, chief minister Akhilesh Yadav stripped his uncle, Shivpal Singh Yadav, of three key ministerial portfolios late on Tuesday, signalling growing fissures within Uttar Pradesh’s ruling Samajwadi Party ahead of next year’s assembly elections.

Hours after SP chief Mulayam Singh Yadav made Shivpal the party’s state unit chief in place of Akhilesh, the chief minister shifted him to the relatively less important social welfare portfolio, removing the senior leader from the PWD, irrigation and revenue and cooperative departments.

Akhilesh, who kept PWD with him, also decided to launch a scheme to repair and improve ‘highly damaged’ roads in the state.