How meet with Amar Singh derailed the Samajwadi Party standoff

The Yadav family feud could have had a happy ending on Thursday itself had the events of the day unfolded as planned.

According to sources, party patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav and Shiv pal came to Lucknow from New Delhi in a plane chartered by CM Akhilesh Yadav. Akhilesh, along with UP cabinet minister Azam Khan, was supposed to give netaji a warm welcome at the Lucknow airport. Together, they would drive to Mulayam’s residence, where a give-and-take solution between the father and son would have been worked out.

But, as it turned out, Mulayam and Shivpal came with Amar Singh, following which the plan to meet and resolve was shelved at the last moment, sources said.

“A broad consensus was arrived at on most of the issues. Shivpal had offered to step down, Akhilesh, on his part, had agreed to give tickets to sacked ministers… But while Mulayam was unwilling to remove Amar Singh, the CM was against any action on Ramgopal Yadav, something unacceptable to netaji,” said a source.

To break the ice between the CM and his uncle Shivpal, it was agreed that Shivpal would go to bring Akhilesh to Mulayam’s residence on Friday. “But both the CM and Azam refused to come to netaji’s residence because of Amar Singh,” said another senior party leader requesting anonymity.

Akhilesh, according to the leader, had made it clear that he was willing to discuss things only with netaji in the presence of Azam and Shivpal and not in front of any ‘outsider’ (read Amar Singh).