Samajwadi Party chief enforces truce between Shivpal and Akhilesh Yadav

Lucknow: Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav managed to enforce a truce between Shivpal Yadav and Akhilesh Yadav, seeking to end the uncle-nephew feud that threatened to split the party and disrupt its prospects in the state polls in 2017.

He met both leaders multiple times and said that the party would not be divided till he was around. As per the deal, the CM would have a greater say in ticket distribution; uncle Shivpal, who quit all government and party posts on Thursday, would get back his portfolios and stay on as SP’s UP chief.

The CM had stripped Shivpal Yadav of key portfolios, hours after Mr Mulayam Singh Yadav had replaced him with his uncle as the party’s state chief.

The CM has been told to reinstate a minister, close to his uncle, he sacked on corruption charges on Monday. The merger of don-turned-politician Mukhtar Ansari’s party QED that the CM had opposed is likely to be formalised.