Mulayam hits out at Akhilesh, says son ‘insulted’ him for 5 yrs

AGRA: Samajwadi Party patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav launched a stinging attack on his son and former chief minister Akhilesh Yadav on Saturday, deepening the faultlines in a party reeling from a drubbing in the Uttar Pradesh assembly elections last month.

Speaking to reporters in his bastion of Mainpuri, the 77-year-old leader said he never felt as insulted in his life as he did during the five years of Akhilesh’s term as CM.

“I allowed Akhilesh to become chief minister when no father allows his son to become chief minister during his life time. He (Akhilesh) continued insulting me for five years and talked to me only for five minutes,” he said.

Mulayam’s comment is the latest episode in a bitter public spat inside SP’s first family that saw a series of tit-for-tat sackings and vitriolic barbs.

Akhilesh staged a virtual coup against his father before the polls and took control of the party, sidelining Mulayam and his influential brother Shivpal.

The then CM also forged an alliance with the Congress against his father’s wishes but suffered a shock loss in the assembly polls, winning just 47 seats in the 403-member assembly.

Mulayam has been silent about his son since election results were announced on March 11. But on Saturday, he launched his most scathing attack yet.

“I had never been insulted so much as I was during these five years. The chief minister even removed his uncle Shivpal from the post of minister,” the veteran leader said. NEWDELHI: All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) chief Asaduddin Owaisi has mocked the BJP for its apparently contradictory stance on cow slaughter in the Northeast.

“BJP’s hypocrisy is that in Uttar Pradesh cow is mummy but in the Northeast it’s yummy,” Owaisi was quoted as saying by a news agency. The comment comes in the backdrop of the BJP asserting that no cow slaughter ban would be enforced in the three northeastern states that go to the polls this year and where bovine meat is a staple.