Beware of fake socialists: Akhilesh to workers
LUCKNOW: The 8th state convention of the Samajwadi Party in Lucknow on Saturday made three things clear – Akhilesh Yadav is firmly in control of the party, he will be re-elected its national president, and his uncle Shivpal has no future in SP.
This was the first convention of the party since Akhilesh became its national president in January and also since the party suffered a humiliating defeat in the UP assembly polls. The state convention re-elected Naresh Uttam Patel the state unit president for five years. Akhilesh is set to be re-elected unopposed. Both the founder national chief of the party Mulayam Singh Yadav and his brother Shivpal didnotattendtheevent. They had attended all the seven state conventions held in the past. Addressing the event at Ramabai Ambedkar grounds, Akhilesh made a veiled attack on his uncle.
“Be cautious of the ‘banavati’ (made up) socialists. They tried to hurt the socialist movement and also succeeded once when they saw us out of power, but from now on they will fail,” he said.
Invoking Mulayam, Akhilesh said, “Netaji is my father and it was because of him that this party was born and came this far. His blessings will remain with me to take his movement further.”
The new avatar of the SP saw most of the senior party leaders rallying around Akhilesh. Azam Khan, one of the founder members and Muslim poster boy of the party, addressed the convention.
Beni Prasad Verma, whom Mulayam had re-inducted into the party and made a member of the Rajya Sabha along with Amar Singh, also attended the convention.
This was the first time when Verma attended a party event since Akhilesh became the national president.
Akhilesh exhorted the party workers to ensure victory in the Lok Sabha bypolls in Gorakhpur and Phulpur seats – vacated by chief minister Yogi Adityanath and his deputy Keshav Prasad Maurya.