Akhilesh to attend Nitish swearing in, Mulayam doubtful

LUCKNOW: While chief minister Akhilesh Yadav is going to Patna on Friday to attend the swearing-in ceremony of Nitish Kumar as chief minister of Bihar, there is still a question mark over his father SP chief Mulayam Singh Yadav’s presence at the event.

“We have confirmation only about chief minister Akhilesh Yadav going to the swearing-in ceremony,” Samajwadi Party state spokesperson Rajendra Chaudhary said.

A source in the party said: “A private plane has also been hired to fly from Lucknow to Patna on Friday. But we have no information who all would fly in it?”

So far there are three confirmations about participation from UP— Akhilesh Yadav, Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) chief Ajit Singh and Congress Rajya Sabha member Raj Babbar.

Significantly, Mulayam addressing a meeting of SP’s youth wings on Wednesday had said: “They betrayed me. Knowing fully well that for past 40 years I had been doing politics against the Congress, they (mahagath-bandhan) took it on board. By doing this they strengthened the Congress and hurt the socialist movement. I chose to exit.”

Originally, a group of socialist parties was due to contest Bihar elections together. However, when Lalu (RJD) and Nitish (Janata Dal-United) took the Congress on board and allotted it 40 seats under a seat-sharing formula and offered only five seats to SP, the party exited the mahagath-bandhan.