All eyes are now set on the day-long silver jubilee foundation day programme of Samajwadi Party in lucknow on Saturday. The event is being seen as another show of strength in the SP’s first family barely 48 hours after CM Akhilesh Yadav launched his ‘Vikas se Vijay Rath Yatra’ on Thursday.
Both warring camps led by CM Akhilesh Yadav and State SP chief Shivpal Yadav respectively, have asked their supporters to mobilise support for the silver jubilee function.
Contrary to earlier speculations that Akhilesh could skip the November 5 programme, the CM fervently appealed to supporters to accord the same importance to the silver jubilee function as they did to the Rath Yatra. This also implied that ‘Team Akhilesh’ will dominate the November 5 show as they did vis-a-vis the Rath Yatra.
Besides sending out a clear message that every thing in the first family and party werehunky dory, the sole objective of the silver jubilee funtion is to exhort all secular forces to unite and stitch together a ‘maha gathbandhan’ to defeat the BJP in 2017 UP Assembly polls.
But the insiders feel that the warring camps will try to steal the thunder during the show.
A day after the SP brass put up a united face while flagging off the Rath Yatra, both Akhilesh Yadav and Shivpal held separate meetings in lucknow on Friday for reviewing preparations and crowed mobilisation for the November 5 show.
The CM meting five expelled MlCs and minister of state Tej Naryan Pandey. Several ministers, MlAs and youth leaders also attended the meeting. PNS
On his part, Shivpal Yadav organised a `Samajwadi Sammelan’ at the state SP office where over a thousand leaders and cadre of the youth outfits participated and informed that former PM HD Devegowda, RJD chief lalu Prasad Yadav, JD (U) leader Sharad Yadav and Rashtriya lok Dal chief Ajit Singh have confirmed their participation, while Bihar CM Nitish Kumar excused himself citing Chat Puja.
later talking to the media, Shivpal said that nothing tangible has so far been achieved in forging an alliance with like-minded parties. He said that party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav will take a final call for an alliance with Congress and other parties.