The Samajwadi Party (SP) office and Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav’s official residence in Lucknow are just about 500 metres apart. On Saturday, the party and the CM called separate meetings of SP leaders, and considering their strength alone, the distance seemed to widen. Akhilesh called the first meeting at 5, Kalidas Marg at 9 am, a day after he was expelled from the party. He invited party legislators and candidates he had supported for the upcoming Assembly elections. Akhilesh’s father and the party’s national president Mulayam Singh Yadav then called a similar meeting at the party office.
By 10.30 am, more than 200 SP MLAs arrived at Akhilesh’s house, according to a party insider. At the other end of the road, the SP office had, by comparison, fewer attendees. According to party insiders, Mulayam later skipped the meet and it was instead chaired by the party’s state chief Shivpal Singh Yadav.
Among those who arrived at the SP office were ministers Paras Nath, Surendra Singh Patel and Sharda Pratap Shukla.
