Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav has issued gag order to the party leaders against speaking to the media on the power struggle within the first family of the party. Mulayam gave this direction after long meeting with the family members on Monday which was attended by the State party president Shivpal Yadav, SP leader in Rajya Sabha and general secretary Ram Gopal Yadav and Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav. The meeting was called by Mulayam Singh Yadav to thrash out the differences within the first family arising out of the recent appointment of Shivpal Yadav in place of Akhilesh Yadav as State president of the party, sacking of the two Ministers and expulsion of MlCs, youth leaders all owing allegiance to the Chief Minister. Chief Minister had also clipped the wings of his uncle Shivpal Yadav by divesting him of the lucrative portfolio of public works department.
Chief minister Akhilesh Yadav is said to have raised the issue of the withdrawal of the expulsion of the presidents of the four youth organisations of the party and the 3 MlC. Ram Gopal Yadav also pleaded the case of youth leaders and wanted the revocation of the expulsion orders. In September also Ram Gopal Yadav had led a huge road show from Delhi to Etawah and later he held a meeting of the party rank and file and appealed the party chief to reconsider his decision about expelling the youth leaders. He had also described Akhilesh Yadav as the future of the Samajwadi Party who could become prime minister of India.
The meeting remained inconclusive. The issue of fresh list of 17 candidates on Monday by the state president where loyalists of Akhilesh and Ram Gopal Yadav were replaced by the loyalist of Shivpal Yadav only added fuel to the fire—thus making the task of reconciliation within the first family even more difficult. Sensing the gravity of the situation Mulayam Singh asked his both the brothers –Shivpal and Ram Gopal and chief minister to refrain from making any statement to the media about the meeting and also not to make statements about the feud within the party.