SP's parliamentary board to decide on CM candidate after UP elections, says Mulayam Singh Yadav

Samajwadi Party supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav on Friday said the party’s Chief Ministerial candidate will be decided by elected party legislatures after the 2017 Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections.

“The Chief ministerial candidate will be decided by the elected party legislatures and parliamentary board. This is our job. This is not your (media) work,” he told reporters here when asked whether his son Akhilesh Yadav was still the SP’s Chief Ministerial candidate for the upcoming elections.

The remarks come as another setback to Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav, who was recently removed from party’s state president post owing to an apparent feud in the first family of the state. They also contest the ‘undisputed’ position of Akhilesh as the Chief Ministerial candidate of Uttar Pradesh.

Mulayam, however, parried questions regarding Akhilesh making Janeshwar Mishra Trust office as “war room” ahead of the state polls and his departure before the SP chief’s arrival during Lohia death anniversary programme.

“There is no dispute in the family. Shivpal had met him (Akhilesh) this morning. In the last elections, votes were sought in my name but I made him (Akhilesh) the state’s CM,” he said.

“Kise kahan baithana hai, hum khud tai karenge (I will decide whom to place where),” he said. The family feud in the party had came to the fore after the merger of Quami Ekta Dal was cancelled at the behest of Akhilesh.

Akhilesh’s supporters, including some MLCs and presidents of party frontal organisations, led protests against his removal but had to backtrack after Mulayam’s intervention. The supporters were later expelled by newly appointed state party chief Shivpal from the party.