Samajwadi Party patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav and his brother Shivpal Yadav are likely to skip the meeting of the newly-elected party MlAs in lucknow on Thursday. SP chief Akhilesh Yadav will preside over the meeting.
SP sources said to prevent a possibility of showdown in the meeting and strengthen the leadership of Akhilesh, the meeting is likely to adopt a resolution authorising the SP president to select a leader of the party in UP Assembly.
The SP leader in the Assembly will also be the leader of the Opposition as the SP has emerged as the largest party in Opposition after the recent Assembly polls.
Azam Khan and Ram Govind Chaudhary are the front runners for the post as Shivpal Yadav has already clarified that he was not interested in the post.
SP sources said that Ram Govind Chaudhary is most likely to be the choice of the SP chief as leader of Opposition. Akhilesh Yadav is the member of the legislative Council. Since the SP has the majority in the Council, Akhilesh will be the leader of Opposition in the Council. Presently, Ahmed Hasan is the leader of the SP in legislative council.
SP sources said that even if Shivpal Yadav was interested for the post of leader of Opposition, Akhilesh would have never allowed this to happen. During the poll campaign, Akhilesh had addressed a meeting in Etawah and had indirectly appealed voters to defeat his uncle, who was the SP candidate from Jaswant Nagar assembly constituency in Etawah district.
After the election results, Shivpal Yadav had hinted at a possible ‘patch up’ with his nephew as he twitted ‘the party will launch a unified struggle to return to power in the State’. As expected, Akhilesh Yadav did not respond. The meeting of the newly elected MlAs would start from 11 am on Thursday at the State SP office.
Samajwadi Party suffered the worst ever defeat in Assembly elections in its 25 years history. Though Akhilesh maintained during the poll campaign that his party will return to power by winning 300 seats, its tally plummeted to a megre 47 seats in the House of 403. The tally of its alliance partner was reduced to a pathetic single digit - 7. The BJP along with its allies won 325 seats.