Mulayam Singh mum on participation in Lalu Prasad's 27 August rally

Mainpuri: Samajwadi Party patron Mulayam Singh Yadav on Sunday declined to confirm his participation in the proposed 27 August rally to be organised by Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) supremo Lalu Prasad in Patna in which invited several top opposition leaders have been invited. [caption id=“attachment_3517367” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Mulayam Singh Yadav. PTI[/caption] “I don’t know anything about this,” Mulayam told reporters when they posed questions about his participation in the rally to be hosted by the RJD leader. To a question over bonhomie between Samajwadi Party national president Akhilesh Yadav and Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi during the Uttar Pradesh Assembly election, Mulayam said, “No discussion was done with me in this regard. If the Congress-Samajwadi Party alliance had not been forged, then the party could have escaped the plight it suffered in the polls”. The SP patron also endorsed his brother Shivpal Singh Yadav forming a new political front while answering a question on Shivpal’s Samajwadi Secular Morcha. On the strained relationship between the father (Mulayam) and son (Akhilesh), Mulayam said, “If there was any anger, then the matter could have been resolved by sitting together and talking about it. Had the talks been done earlier, this situation would have never cropped up”. On May 31, Akhilesh had said he would attend Prasad’s rally in Patna and added that Bahujan Samaj Party supremo Mayawati would also be present there. “I will be present at Lalu Prasad_ji_’s Bihar rally on 27 August and Mayawati will also be there. If there is any announcement (regarding future alliance) it will be made there,” Akhilesh had said when asked about the possibility of SP and BSP coming together again. The RJD chief has invited several top opposition leaders to his party’s mega rally in Patna.