It was an unusual day for the rank and file of the Samajwadi Party in lucknow on Friday, many of whom had come from neighbouring districts to demonstrate their loyalty to the leaders.
Earlier they had to shout ‘zindabad’ for Mulayam Singh Yadav or UP Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav, however, on Friday, a third name was added to the list, that of Shivpal Yadav.
From 7 am onwards, supporters of Shivpal started assembling in front of his private residence on Vikramaditya Marg in lucknow, just 100 metres away from the State office of the Samajwadi Party which is also located on Vikramaditya Marg.
Incidentally, the official residence of Akhilesh on Kalidas Marg and the official residence of Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam, allotted to him in his capacity as former Chief Minister of UP, is also a few hundred yards away from the residence of Shivpal.
The enthusiastic supporters, wearing T-shirts with photos of Shivpal raised stock trade slogans like, “Tum sangharsh karo, hum tumhaare saath hain” (We are with you in your struggle), till a party worker appeared from inside the bungalow and said something to them. Suddenly, the slogan changed to, “Netaji tum gaddi sambhalo, Ram Gopal ko bahar nikalo.” (Mulayam you stabilise the Government, remove Ram Gopal.)
A few minutes past 9 am, Shivpal came out and asked his supporters to shift to the party office and take their grievances to Mulayam. At 10 am, Shivpal and his son Aditya Yadav proceeded to the residence of Mulayam and remained closeted with Netaji for a while.
Before Shivpal took leave of the party boss, Mulayam gave him back the resignation letters the duo had given on Thursday in a huff.
After half-an-hour Akhilesh arrived and Mulayam had a one-on-one talk with his son for 40 minutes before leaving for a programme organised at a local hotel by a TV channel.
At 1 pm Mulayam headed straight for the auditorium in the party office and declared that there was no rift in the party, even as the supporters of Akhilesh and Shivpal raised loud slogans hailing their respective leaders, despite repeated requests by Mulayam to maintain order.
Soon after, the news that the dispute within the first family of the ruling party had been amicably settled spread like wildfire and the cadre celebrated the fact that the warring uncle and nephew had agreed to abide by the decision of Netaji.