Taking a step towards ending the three-month-long family feud, Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav revoked the suspension of Prof Ram Gopal Yadav and reinstated him as the party’s national general secretary and national spokesman – the posts he was holding before.
The move was on the anvil as the SP retained Prof Yadav as leader of SP in Rajya Sabha and he toed the party line in the House during a debate on demonetisation on Wednesday.
Curtain came down on the suspense on Thursday morning, when a letter from Mulayam Singh was released revoking the expulsion with immediate effect.
The letter beside withdrawing Prof Yadav’s expulsion said that he would continue as party’s leader in Rajya Sabha, party’s national general secretary and spokesperson and also be a member of the Central Parliamentary Board.
This decision lifted the gloom enveloping the SP with party workers claiming that the decision would unite the cadres. “After the decision, there is every possibility that the expulsion of five MlCs and other youth leaders will be revoked soon,” a senior SP leader told ‘The Pioneer’ from New Delhi over telephone.
Incidentally, all the young leaders expelled are supporters of Prof Ram Gopal Yadav and Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav.
Part sources said that Mulayam Singh met Professor Yadav in New Delhi on Wednesday where both decided to bury the hatchet for a bigger cause - to fight the BJP in 2017 UP Assembly elections.
Earlier during a function in Unnao, state SP president Shivpal Yadav too had claimed that the family feud has ended and there was no bitterness among the leaders.
Mulayam Singh Yadav took the decision on the second day of the crucial winter session of Parliament when on the first day, ProfYadav spoke on behalf of the SP and participated in a debate on withdrawal of high value notes by the government on November 8.
Surprisingly, even after expelling Prof Yadav, the party did not appoint any new party leader in Rajya Sabha giving out a clear message about Mulayam’s soft corner towards his cousin.
Ram Gopal Yadav was expelled for his open letter to party cadre issued from Mumbai on October 23 asking the cadres to rally around Akhilesh Yadav as he was the party’s future. Without naming Mulayam Singh and Shivpal Yadav, he had levelled serious charges against both casting aspersions on their integrity.
Soon after Ram Gopal’s expulsion, Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav dismissed his uncle Shivpal Yadav from the cabinet along with three other ministers.