SP meet: Akhilesh likely to be re-elected as party chief

Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav is likely to be re-elected as the party's national president for five years at the SP national convention here tomorrow.

Ahead of the SP's 10th national convention, party's top brass assembled today for the national executive meeting which will set the tone for deliberations.Besides election for the post of the SP national president in which Akhilesh is likely to be re-elected and amendment of party's constitution to extend the tenure of the party chief, the other highlights of the meetings will be passage of political and economic resolutions, SP sources said.

At the high profile meeting, the party will amend its constitution extending national president's tenure to five years, SP spokesperson Rajendra Chowdhury said.

If Akhilesh remains at the helm for five years, the 2019 Lok Sabha and state Assembly elections in 2022 will be held under his presidentship. The state president's tenure has already been extended by a similar period by the state executive and Naresh Uttam was unanimously re-elected to the post for five years.

Mulayam and his comrade-in-arms Shivpal Yadav were conspicuous by their absence at the state meet in Lucknow on September 23.

All eyes will be on



whether SP patron Mulayam Singh Yadav attends the event, especially in the light of his son Akhilesh meeting him personally in Lucknow last week to extend an invitation.

Akhilesh, who is involved in a feud with Shivpal Yadav, had recently dropped enough hints that there was no likelihood of any reconciliation with his warring uncle when he cautioned partymen to beware of "fake samajwadis".

"Beware of 'banawti' (fake) samajwadis. They have tried to stop the samajwadi andolan (socialist movement) many times.They succeeded in one conspiracy as a result of which we could not form government again in the state.

"But it has opened the eyes of samajwadis. Now they will not succeed," he had recently said in Lucknow in an apparent attack on Shivpal, though he did not take his name.

While Akhilesh (44) maintained that he enjoyed the blessings of his 77-year-old father, Mulayam on his part corroborated it days later saying, "My blessings are with him (Akhilesh Yadav) as he is my son, though I don't agree with his decisions." 

"Baap bete me kab tak matbhed rah sakta hai, koi nahi keh sakta" (No one can say for sure how long differences will remain between father and son)," he had said.