Unity in the first family of the Samajwadi Party remained elusive as party president Akhilesh Yadav and his uncle Shivpal Yadav celebrated the 82nd birthday of SP patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav separately in Lucknow and Etawah.
Mulayam Singh Yadav celebrated the day by cutting a 83-kg cake at the state office of the party with his son Akhilesh Yadav and other party leaders while Shivpal Yadav celebrated the event at Etawah.
Shivpal Yadav organised a ‘Dangal’ (wrestling competition) on the occasion at Saifai, the ancestral village of the Yadav clan in Etawah district
The SP leader also evaded a reply on whether Shivpal Yadav, the president of Pragatisheel Samajwadi Party (Lohia), would attend the celebrations. Shivpal is the brother of the octogenarian leader.
On November 3, Akhilesh Yadav had stated that he would be joining hands with his uncle on the birthday of the party founder. He had said that he would give all respect to Shivpal with whose party he would enter into an alliance for the upcoming assembly elections.
Mulayam Singh Yadav, standing next to his son and SP chief Akhilesh Yadav, expressed gratitude to the workers and said: “I want to thank all of you who have come here, but I will be happy if you celebrate the birthday of the poor in a similar way. I can see that youngsters are enthusiastic today. I want you all to carry forward the wave of change in the state.” The SP patriarch also cut an 83-kg laddoo on the occasion.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday greeted Mulayam on his birthday and said the former Uttar Pradesh chief minister has made an important contribution in the politics of the country.
Yadav, a former Union minister, was born in Saifai village of Etawah district in 1939.
“I wish him a healthy and long life,” the PM said in a tweet in Hindi. UP chief minister Yogi Adityanath also tweeted to greet Mulayam on his birthday.
The SP leaders celebrated Mulayam’s birthday in all districts of UP on Monday. Mulayam started his early life as a teacher and was elected a member of the Legislative Assembly for the first time in 1967. In 1977, he became a minister for the first time in the Uttar Pradesh government of the Janata Party led by Ramnaresh Yadav.
In the year 1989, Mulayam went on to become the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh for the first time. In 1992, he founded the Samajwadi Party.