Had Akhilesh Yadav become the UP chief minister again, the Samajwadi Party's reins could have been given back to Mulayam, but since the party lost the state polls, the former would remain the party president, its leader Ram Gobind Chaudhary said today.
In a bitter power struggle within the SP, Akhilesh was anointed the party president at its national convention on January 1, upstaging his father Mulayam Singh Yadav.
Akhilesh had reportedly said, "I have asked him (Mulayam) to give me authority for three months. After returning to power, he may decide whatever he wants."
Chaudhary today said, "Had the Samajwadi Party got majority in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls, then Akhilesh Yadav would have become the chief minister, while handing over the reins of the party to Mulayam."
"However, the SP lost the Assembly election. Hence, there is no need to hand over the national president post to Mulayam Singh Yadav," he said.
After the Samajwadi Party's drubbing in the Assembly polls, voices of handing over the party's reins to Mulayam has started gaining momentum.
Senior leader Shivpal Yadav has said Akhilesh should handover the reins of the party back to his father.
"He (Akhilesh Yadav) should unite the family and the party by fulfilling his promise. He should show some morality. He should follow what he had said before the election and should make Netaji (Mulayam) the national president of the party," Shivpal had said in Mainpuri on April 18.
On triple talaq, Chaudhary termed the issue as "irrelevant" and asked, "Why does the BJP not raise issues concerning Hindu women?"
Accusing the BJP of indulging in fake 'Gau Seva' he said, "The BJP leaders only offer green fodder to the cows, while the actual fodder of cows is hay."
Reacting to Chaudhary's comments, state BJP spokesperson Rakesh Tripathi said who becomes the president of SP is its "internal matter".
"It is not Samajwadi Party, it is Pariwaarwadi Party. Akhilesh has failed as the party president and it is quite possible that the SP workers want a person to be the party's chief under whom they could have won the election," he said.
The Samajwadi Party, which had fought the Uttar Pradesh election in alliance with the Congress, had managed to win only 47 of the 403 seats in the Assembly. The Congress won in only 7 Assembly constituencies.
On triple talaq issue, Tripathi asked, "If the Samajwadi Party was really concerned about the Muslims, then why did it choose to overlook the plight of Muslim women.
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