SP feud: UP CM Akhilesh Yadav sacks uncle Shivpal, 3 others from Cabinet

Lucknow: The rift in Samajwadi Party seems to have widened as Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav on Sunday sacked four ministers including his uncle Shivpal Yadav from the state cabinet.

The chief minister took the decision at a meeting of MLAs and MLCs, however, legislators considered too close to state party chief Shivpal Yadav were allegedly not invited for the de-facto legislature party meeting.

“CM said in the meeting that whoever is close to Amar Singh cannot be in my cabinet,” said Raju Yadav, the MLA from Mainpuri. According to sources the CM may drop more ministers who are said to be close to Amar Singh.

Barabanki MLC Rajesh Yadav, who attended today's meeting, lashed out at party leader Amar Singh for attempting to create friction in the Samajwadi Party.

"The party belongs to Netaji. He assigned the Chief Minister's job to Akhilesh Yadav, who managed it extremely well. He looked at both the party and family in a very efficient manner. Our fight is against those trying to create friction in the party and the one person who is doing this is Amar Singh," he told the media.

Akhilesh had earlier divested Shivpal of all important ministerial portfolios including PWD, irrigation, cooperative, flood control and revenue and handed him the social welfare department.

Prior to it, Shivpal had replaced him as its new chief in Uttar Pradesh on the instructions of Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav.

Disagreements between Akhilesh and his uncle have been reported on several occasions, including on the choice of official to appointed as the state's chief secretary after Alok Ranjan's term ended and the postponement of Quami Ekta Dal's merger with the Samajwadi Party.

The move comes at a time when the state is gearing up for assembly elections which is scheduled to take place next year.