Akhilesh Yadav gives back ministries to Shivpal

Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav on Friday forged an uneasy truce between his chief minister-son Akhilesh and brother Shivpal to end a damaging power struggle in the party five months ahead of the state election.

The young chief minister, however, looks determined to come out of his powerful father’s shadow and have a say in the poll strategy, decided by Mulayam -- or Netaji as he is known -- and his brothers since the party’s inception in 1992.

The party plunged into a crisis early this week after Akhilesh took away three portfolios from Shivpal hours after Mulayam removed the chief minister as the UP party president and named his brother to the position.

“I am ready to return party posts and even portfolios



but I must have the power to distribute tickets because the forthcoming poll is after all a test for me and my party,” Akhilesh told India TV.

In the evening, he tweeted, “Portfolios will be given back to Mr. Shivpal Singh Yadav.”

That as well as taking back cabinet minister Gayatri Prasad Prajapati, a Shivpal loyalist sacked by Akhilesh, were part of a compromise worked out by Mulayam to end the feuding in the party, sources said.The SP patriarch announced at the party office in Lucknow that there was no rift in the party and that it would “not split” till he was around.

“We have a big family, differences may occur... There is no fight between Shivpal Yadav and Akhilesh,” he told party members.