Akhilesh Yadav has drooped uncle Shivpal Yadav from cabinet again.
Hours after he was dropped from the state cabinet by nephew Akhilesh Yadav, senior Samajwadi Party leader Shivpal Yadav said his cousin Ram Gopal Yadav had been expelled from the party for "conspiring with the BJP". Mulayam Singh Yadav held an impromptu meeting with his leaders, but a formal meeting is expected on Monday.
Here are the top 10 developments in this big story
Shivpal Yadav said Ram Gopal Yadav was doing this "because his son Akshay Yadav and daughter-in-law are caught in a scam. To save them, they are conspiring with the BJP." His own sacking from the state cabinet, he said, was a fallout of that conspiracy.
Reacting to the allegations, Ram Gopal Yadav, in a letter to Mulayam Singh Yadav, denied there was any CBI investigation against his son or any other family member. "In public life, one meets people from other parties too... So if I met some BJP leaders, why draw a political meaning?" he asked.
The sacking was announced at a meeting between Akhilesh Yadav and his ministers this morning. Besides Shivpal Yadav, ministers Narad Rai, Omprakash and Sayeda Shadab Fatima had been dropped.
It was seen as a retort to his father, Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav, who has been promoting Shivpal over his son in the run-up to next year's assembly elections in the state.
The sacking of the senior leader from the state cabinet twice in two months, has raised speculations of a split in the party. But Akhilesh Yadav said he won't break away. "Mulayam Yadav is my father. I'll serve him all my life. I don't want to split the party," he said.
Akhilesh Yadav's supporters have blamed the rift within the party on Amar Singh. Without naming Amar Singh, senior party leader Azam Khan said, "Knew that this day will come, because of one person we have incurred heavy losses."
"The Samajwadi Party is treating Uttar Pradesh as a fiefdom of the family. The Yadav family slugfest is out in open," said Anupriya Patel, the leader of Apna Dal, an ally of the BJP.
State BJP chief Keshav Prasad Maurya demanded that Akhilesh Yadav resign or prove his majority on the floor of the Assembly.
Yesterday, Mulayam Singh Yadav met son Akhilesh and brother Shivpal in an attempt to broker peace. A supporter of the Chief Minister, legislator Udayveer Singh -- who accused Mulayam Singh's second wife of being part of the conspiracy against Akhilesh Yadav -- was expelled from the party after the meeting.
The Yadav versus Yadav battle has been raging for almost two months. In September, Akhilesh Yadav had dropped uncle Shivpal from the cabinet after he crafted an alliance with gangster-turned politician Mukhtar Ansari. But he was forced to take Shivpal back and let the alliance stand after Mulayam Singh intervened.
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