OnlyAkhilesh can ensure SP’s victory: Ram Gopal to MSY

Lucknow: The ongoing tussle in Samajwadi Party’s first family took a new turn on Saturday when party general secretary Ram Gopal Yadav wrote a letter to his cousin and SP chief Mulayam Singh Yadav, cautioning him that he (Mulayam) would be held responsible if the party’s fortunes plunged in the forthcoming assembly elections. In a recent pre-poll survey, SP was placed behind BJP and BSP.

Writing this terse letter a day after Mulayam said that MLAs and parliamentary board would select the next CM, Ram Gopal said in it that Akhilesh was undoubtedly the most popular leader of the state and under him UP has seen unprecedented development works. Ram Gopal said if SP has to win the elections, Akhilesh must be made its CM face.

He has warned that Mulayam could take any decision that he wanted, but if the party's tally fell below 100, he alone would be held responsible. “The same people who worship you for raising Samajwadi Party and would hold you responsible for its decline also. History is ruthless. It spares noe one,” Ram Gopal has said.

Indirectly referring to the way Akhilesh was being hounded within the party and the family, Ram Gopal has written: "The turn of events in the past few days have left the cadre in a state of dejection. It has also given rise to resentment against party leadership." Ram Gopal’s intervention has come at a time when Akhilesh’s leadership was being questioned and he was being attacked within the party and the family.

When Mulayam received this letter in Delhi, he immediately rushed to Ram Gopal’s residence and the two got closeted for over three hours to sort out their differences.

Ram Gopal has started his letter with an emotional pitch recalling how Mulayam had raised and established the party with his hard work and how it achieved a thumping majority in 2012. Then he mentions the party’s supporters are pained over the manner the party which was on the top had been forced to decline due to wrong advice of a handful of people around him.

‘Those who are advising you are zero in the people’s eyes,” Ram Gopal has told Mulayam. Ram Gopal has cautioned Mulayam against these advisers, saying that due to their “ill-advice”, the party's prospects in the assembly polls would take a beating.

The Rajya Sabha member is considered on the side of Akhilesh in the present family feud. In 2012, it was Ram Gopal who first proposed Akhilesh’s name as the next CM and openly questioned the way Mulayam removed Akhilesh from the state chief's post and appointed Shivpal Yadav last month.