SP MP Naresh Agarwal says Akhilesh Yadav will be party’s CM candidate

Akhilesh Yadav will be the chief ministerial candidate of Samajwadi Party in the upcoming Assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh, Samajwadi Party leader Naresh Agarwal said today amid a turf war in Mulayam Singh Yadav’s family.

“Election will be contested under the guidance of Akhilesh Yadav and Mulayan Singh Yadav. Akhilesh will remain the chief ministerial candidate,” the party’s Rajya Sabha MP said. The SP leader also said “if there is any outsider, who is interfering, he should stop immediately”.

His remarks came after differences among the family members came in the open, with Mulayam’s son and Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav stripping his uncle and Cabinet Minister Shivpal Yadav of key ministerial portfolios, hours after SP supremo Mulayam replaced him with Shivpal as the party’s state unit chief.

Agarwal’s remark referring to an “outsider” came a day after Akhilesh too spoke in similar vein. The MP, however, asserted that there were no differences in the party.

“We will follow the decision of Netaji and the Chief Minister has the right to allot portfolios,” he said and downplayed Mulayam’s decision to replace Akhilesh as state party chief.