UP chief minister Akhilesh Yadav is likely to skip the party rally in Bareilly on Wednesday. Samajwadi party supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav will preside over the rally. The rally in Bareilly will be the second big political event to be skipped by the chief minister. Akhilesh Yadav had stayed away from the rally in Ghazipur on November 23.
Samajwadi party sources also confirmed that chief minister will not be attending the rally at Bareilly. ``None else is needed in a rally to be addressed by the national president of the party. Netaji is the star campaigner of the party and he will lead the party to victory in 2017 state assembly elections’’, said Virpral Yadav district president of the Bareilly unit of the Samajwadi party. The former Rajya Sabha MP and an old guard of the party however said ``chief minister will also come to Bareilly during the state wide tour of his rath yatra and there will be two programmes of the party in Bareilly’’. Virpal Yadav said state president of the party Shivpal Yadav will also attend the rally.
SP sources said the feud in the first family of the party is the sole reason that Akhilesh Yadav has opted to stay away from the Bareilly rally. ``The party has been able to create a facade of unity within the first family; there is no let up in the game of one-upmanship between the chief minister Akhilesh Yadav and his uncle Shivpal Yadav. Akhilesh Yadav has decided to skip the rally only because he was not assigned any role in the show’’, said a SP leader.
Many eyebrows were raised as akhilesh Yadav had stayed away from the party rally at Gahzipur on November 23. However then the akhilesh camp had said the chief minister stayed away from the Ghazipur rally only to convey hi9s displeasure over the entry of the mafia don Mukhtar Ansari and his brothers in the party. Chief minister had earlier in June had opposed the merger of the Mukhtar’s party Quami Ekta Dal with the Samajwadi party. Following the opposition from the chief minister SP had rolled back the move. However on the direction of the party supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav the move for the merger was revived and finalised in October. The SP sources said that the party leaders owing allegiance to Achilles Yadav, particularly the youth leaders in Bareilly are maintaining a distance from the preparations for the rally. SP has appointed in charge in each assembly constituency falling in Bareilly division for mobilising the crowed in the rally. The members of the team Akhilesh are however conspicuous by their absence from the preparations for the rally.
Dharmendra Yadav, cousin of the chief minister and party MP from neighbouring Badaun district is also said to be indifferent towards the preparations for the rally. Moreover, SP sources said the district administration of Bareilly is also indifferent towards the rally as it has no instruction from the top in lucknow.