Samajwadi Party president and former Uttar Pradesh chief minister Akhilesh Yadav said that his father Mulayam Singh Yadav was repeatedly complaining against him to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and without taking any name said that some senior party leaders wanted freezing of the party election symbol but due to Ram Gopal Yadav they failed in their conspiracy.
“Netaji (Mulayam) is not annoyed with Ram Gopal but he is totally against me and even complained to Prime Minister . I got to know through Modi that my father had expressed his annoyance against me,” he said.
Addressing a function to celebrate the 71th birthday of party general secretary and leader in the Rajya Sabha Ram Gopal Yadav in Etawah on Thursday the former CM said some party leaders wanted that Election Commission should freeze our symbol it was because of Ram Gopal ji that their conspiracy did not succeed.
“If Ram Gopal had not been with me, the bi-cycle symbol would not have been given to SP. Then what had we done in the assembly elections. It was only due to the hard work of Ram Gopal ji that we got the symbol and now the party is cruising ahead,” he said.
Claiming that the organisors of this birthday celebrations had invited Mulayam Singh Yadav but he did not come.” Had Netaji attended this function, it would have been a grand event,” he said.
Though Mulayam Singh Yadav was invited but Shivpal Singh Yadav was not invited and most of the family members of lucknow kept themselves away from the function.
Akhilesh Yadav while wishing a long life for Ram Gopal said that the SP leaders and workers are honestly working for the expansion of the party. “We will fulfill the dreams of Netaji and achieve the goal hje had dreamt off,” he said.
Taking a jibe at Prime Minister Narendra Modi he said that now the PM too has admitted that cycling is best for good health. “ On the international Yoga Day, I had asked the PM first to ride a cycle and then do yoga but he did not give any cognizance to my advice but when Netherland’s PM asked Modi to ride a bi-cycle he did it immediately”, he said.
The former CM said:” We had done lot for the state, but the people did not give us a second chance. We are not disappointed. Though we lost but we will continue to work for the people. We want that this BJP government complete the Poorwanchal Expressway in 22 months like we did for lucknow- Agra expressway.”
Ram Gopal Yadav in his address thanked the leaders and the crowd for making such a grand birthday celebrations. He said the party workers should take the blessings of the poor and work honestly for them.
Talking about the dispute within the family, he said: “when the dispute was on its peak, I wrote to Netaji from Mumbai that I will be with Akhilesh in this dharamyudh. I was with Akhilesh and would remain with him in my entire life.”
Appealing to all the SP leaders and workers to take a pledge to make Akhilesh the CM of the state in 2022, Ram Gopal Yadav said the workers should work hard to achieve the target to bring the party on the top position in the state.
Senior leaders like Rajya Sabha member Naresh Agarwal, SP state president Naresh Uttam, former ministers Balram Yadav, Om Prakash Singh, Arvind Singh Gope and other leaders participated in the function.