Power tussle in Samajwadi Party continues, Mulayam, Akhilesh call for separate meetings

Lucknow: The rift in the Samajwadi Party that appeared during the campaigning for the Assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh in early 2017, following which the party lost power, has been growing bigger with the continuance of the power tussle in the Yadav family.

The Samajwadi Party is set to organise a state conference in Lucknow on September 23 and a national conference on October 5, called on by former chief minister Akhilesh Yadav.

It will be for the first time that the party patriarch, Mulayam Singh Yadav, will not be involved in the conferences called by at the state and the national level.

But just two days before this, Mulayam Yadav has called for a meeting of the Lohia Trust on September 21.

Interestingly, Mulayam Singh Yadav is the trustee of the Lohia Trust and Ram Gopal Yadav is the trust secretary.

Apart from this, there are 11 other trustees of the Lohia Trust, including party president Akhilesh Yadav.

Akhilesh and Ram Gopal were not present in the last meeting called by Mulayam.