Akhilesh Yadav meets UP governor, sparks speculation

Lucknow, Oct 26 (IANS) Amid a bitter and public war of supremacy in the ruling Samajwadi Party (SP), Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav met Governor Ram Naik at Raj Bhavan on Wednesday afternoon.

There was no official word from Raj Bhavan on the meeting and officials said it was a routine meeting in which the Chief Minister extended "advance greetings" for Diwali to the Governor.

Sources, however, told IANS that the 30-minute meeting was "detailed and exhaustive" as the Chief Minister informed the Governor of the developments within his party.

Expulsion of Minister of State for Forests Tej Narayan Pandey aka Pawan Pandey earlier in the day was also discussed. Akhilesh has been asked by the party to sack him from the ministry as well.

An informed source said that Akhilesh Yadav handed over a letter of support from 205 legislators of his party and briefed Naik about the legislature meeting of his party MLAs. The move is being seen as an attempt by the Chief Minister's camp to pre-empt any move by his uncle Shivpal Yadav and father Mulayam Singh Yadav to upstage him at any point of time in near future.

SP chief Mulayam has, however, made it clear that for now, there was no move to remove the Chief Minister. "Akhilesh is Chief Minister today and nobody has an objection to it," the SP supremo told a press conference on Tuesday.

Mulayam had also said that he himself was not interested in the job, as there were just two-odd months left before the notification of the forthcoming state assembly polls.

"Will I become Chief Minister for two months? In this time only salaries of government employees will be distributed," he said.

But despite the bravado and claims that all is well, Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav does not seem to be in a mood to relent and has reportedly refused to take back the four sacked ministers in his cabinet until some young leaders and Rajya Sabha member Ram Gopal Yadav, all expelled from the party for six years, are taken back.

Before meeting the Governor, Akhilesh on Wednesday morning met party legislators, members of legislative council and other leaders, including those who have been expelled from the party.