After Mulayam rap, Akhilesh meets him with convention invite

LUCKNOW: In a surprise move, Samajwadi Party (SP) president Akhilesh Yadav called on his father and former party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav and invited him to the party’s national convention in Agra on October 5.

The Akhilesh-Mulayam meeting happened three days after Mulayam, at a press conference in Lucknow, called him “a son who had betrayed his father” but also had said that “of course, the father’s blessings are with the son, though all the decisions Akhilesh took were wrong.”

The meeting triggered a guessing game in the party and political circles -- Will Mulayam attend the Agra summit or not? If he does, it will be the first time Mulayam will participate in the party’s event since Akhilesh took over as the party president January 1. If he doesn’t, then this will be the first national convention of the party without him.

Mulayam founded the party in 1992 and attended all its national conventions -- as party chief.

Sources in the party say Mulayam might attend the meeting though at Monday’s press conference he had stated that he would not attend it. But in the same breath he had also said: “Let’s see. How long differences between the father and son stay.” Mulayam also had ruled out floating any new party.

The party had held a state convention on September 23 as a prelude to the national convention but had not invited both Mulayam Singh Yadav and Akhilesh’s uncle Shivpal Yadav. The convention re-elected Naresh Uttam Patel the party’s state president for five years.

Akhilesh met Mulayam at his residence, next to his own house, on Thursday afternoon. Before this, the last official meeting between the two took place on the day the 2017 election results spelt a massive defeat for SP – March 11.

The national convention to which Mulayam has been invited will elect the party president for a term of five years. Akhilesh will open the convention by unfurling the party’s flag at the venue.

SP spokesperson Rajendra Chaudhary said: “A total of 15,000 delegates from 25 states will attend the convention.”