Lucknow: Keeping the family feud alive, Samajwadi Party patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav kick-out four loyalists of SP national president Akhilesh Yadav from the Lohia Trust on Tuesday but retained his son Akhilesh and cousin Ramgopal Yadav. The former SP chief replaced the four Akhilesh loyalists with Shivpal camp followers in the Trust.
The Lohia Trust is an affiliate of the Samajwadi Party and Mulayam is its chairperson. Mulayam’s brother and SP MLA Shivpal Yadav, Akhilesh and Ramgopal Yadav, who is also the SP national general secretary, are members of the trust.
Mulayam terminated the trust membership of Ramgovind Chaudhary, the leader of Opposition in the Vidhan Sabha; Ahmed Hasan, Usha Verma and Alok Shakya at the annual meeting of the Lohia Trust held at its headquarters at 1-Vikramaditya Marg.
Deepak Mishra, whom Akhilesh Yadav had expelled from the SP three months ago, has been made a member. He is Shivpal’s closest aide and president of the Samajwadi Chintan Sabha, Etawah’s Ramsewak and Ramnaresh, and Hardoi’s Rajesh Yadav too have become new members of the Lohia Trust.
Akhilesh and Ramgopal skipped the meeting despite an invitation. During the initial stages of the Yadav family feud, Akhilesh had created another trust,the Janeshwar Mishra Trust adjacent to Lohia Trust. Akhilesh is the chairperson of the Janeshwar Mishra Trust.
The otherwise belligerent Shivpal Yadav struck a conciliatory note, talking to journalists after the meeting. He said: “Invitation had gone to them too (Akhilesh and Ramgopal), but I guess due to their prior commitments, they could not turn up. They might attend the next meeting.”
The Yadav family feud came to the fore about a year ago. Six months later, Akhilesh Yadav was crowned the national president of the party, replacing Mulayam, at an emergency national convention of the party.
