Samajwadi Party crisis: Shivpal sacks CM Akhilesh Yadav's aide Pawan Pandey from the party

Pawan Pandey, Uttar Pradesh government minister and a close aide of Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav, was on Wednesday sacked from the Samajwadi Party by Akhilesh’s uncle Shivpal. [caption id=“attachment_3073464” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Shivpal Singh Yadav. PTI[/caption] According to ANI, Shivpal has also written a letter to Akhilesh in which he has asked the UP chief minister to sack Pandey from the ministerial position in the government. On Monday, MLC Ashu Malik had alleged that he was slapped by Pandey at Akhilesh’s residence. “When I was at the chief minister’s residence, party leader Pawan Pandey came and attacked me. He slapped me twice,” ABPLive quoted Malik as saying. The sacking of Pawan Pandey is bound escalate the tension in the Samajwadi Party, which has been facing n internal crisis since Akhilesh Yadav sacked Shivpal from the UP cabinet on Sunday. The feud in the party came out into the open on Monday with a high-voltage drama unfolding in full public view during which party patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav sided with his younger brother Shivpal and friend Amar Singh, and reprimanded son Akhilesh but ruled out his removal as chief minister. According to ANI, Akhilesh on Wednesday also met UP Governor Ram Naik, though the agency also said that the meeting was a courtesy call. And adding to the already escalating tension within the party, Shivpal Singh Yadav got his nameplate removed from outside his residence in Lucknow.

Shivpal Singh Yadav gets his nameplate removed from outside his residence in Lucknow, days after UP CM expelled him from the UP Cabinet pic.twitter.com/ovXYgi75R7

— ANI UP/Uttarakhand (@ANINewsUP) October 26, 2016

Amid speculation about a possible split ahead of the assembly polls, the bitter power struggle in SP’s first family had played out on stage at a meeting called by Mulayam for party legislators, MPs and other leaders where Akhilesh, blowing hot and cold, first offered to step down in a choked voice but later accused Singh and those close to him of hatching a “conspiracy” against him and his father. There were sharp exchanges between Akhilesh and Mulayam, who virtually dismissed him as an insignificant entity in UP politics who could not win an election without his support. “What is your capability? Can you win elections?” he had asked, snapping at Akhilesh. There were ugly scenes and name-calling, with Shivpal Yadav, the state SP chief, snatching the microphone from Akhilesh and calling him a liar, only to make a dramatic appearance at the Chief Minister’s residence hours later. With inputs from PTI