Samajwadi Party patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav said on Sunday that it was a ‘mistake’ to make his son Akhilesh Yadav chief minister of Uttar Pradesh while he blamed the alliance with the Congress for the ‘poor’ state of the party and said efforts should be made to strengthen it.
“Things would have been different if I had been the chief minister,” he said.
He said though the Congress left no stone unturned to ‘ruin’ his life, Akhilesh forged an alliance with the party in the run up to the assembly polls.
Read | Yadav family feud: Akhilesh expels Shivpal aide from Samajwadi Party
“Alliance with Congress is responsible for the present poor state of the party. I had advised Akhilesh not to go ahead with it but he did so. The SP is itself responsible for its defeat and not the people of the state”, he told reporters.
Mulayam was here to unveil a statue of martyr Dharmendra Yadav in Junesa village in Karhal area here.
But he made no mention of the ‘secular morcha’ declared by his brother Shivpal Yadav and reiterated what he told Hindustan Times in an exclusive interview on Saturday. He admitted that anger was the reason why Shivpal distanced himself from the party but exuded confidence that all the issues would be sorted out to keep the Yadav family and Samajwadi Party united.
{{/usCountry}}But he made no mention of the ‘secular morcha’ declared by his brother Shivpal Yadav and reiterated what he told Hindustan Times in an exclusive interview on Saturday. He admitted that anger was the reason why Shivpal distanced himself from the party but exuded confidence that all the issues would be sorted out to keep the Yadav family and Samajwadi Party united.
{{/usCountry}}Mulayam admitted that Shivpal was angry but stressed that the latter had worked hard for the party. “We all know who is the ‘Shakuni’ (a villain in Mahabharat)’ he said, in a veiled attack on his cousin Prof Ram Gopal Yadav who had backed Akhilesh during the family war.
The Samajwadi Party founder said the leadership of the party would be in the hands of youth in future and added that he would again talk to Shivpal to sort out the issues.
Targeting elements ‘within’ which were working against the party, the SP patriarch alleged that money was spent to ensure defeat of Shivpal Yadav in the recent assembly election but yet he won with a margin of 52,000 votes from Jaswant Nagar.
“One cannot blame the voters. Those within the party were responsible. It could have fallen lower had I not campaigned,” he said referring to the SP’s stunning defeat in the polls as he exhorted the workers to strengthen the party.
“SP introduced good schemes but official were left free for five years and party leaders paid no heed, which made the masses feel neglected,” he said.
Quoting PM Narendra Modi again, he said Akhilesh never bothered to reply to the PM’s allegation that one who could not be loyal to his father could be loyal to none. “Akhilesh should have denied this even if he was not convinced but I would have felt better,” Mulayam said. (With PTI input)