Samajwadi Party Vice-President Kiranmoy Nanda on Monday announced that Akhilesh Yadav will be the party candidate for the post of Chief Minister for the 2017 assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh. He also said that patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav’s earlier comment that the CM would be elected by the legislature party, was about the procedure.
Nanda’s statements comes after a major controversy over the party’s CM face following Mulayam’s October 14 comment that the elected party MLAs would decide the next UP CM if Samajwadi Party wins. Nanda also said there was no confusion in the party on the issue as the decision to project Akhilesh as CM candidate was taken long back.
Nanda’s clarification is being seen as an attempt to defuse the controversy. A day after Mulayam’s comments, senior party official Ram Gopal Yadav sent a strongly worded letter to the SP patriarch stating that “only Akhilesh can help SP win the elections”. He said if Akhilesh was not made the party face, SP might fall below 100 seats.
Nanda, however, said the letter was a personal communication between two leaders and not an official one. Nanda had a one-hour meeting with Mulayam before the press conference in Lucknow.
Sourced from agencies, featured image courtesy: NewsX
