NEW DELHI: The crevice between the top leadership of the Samajwadi Party (SP) only seems to widen after bringing the curtains down on the family drama for a short while.
The faction-ridden top leadership of the Samajwadi Party is said to be divided again over the appointment of a new leader in the Rajya Sabha after incumbent Ram Gopal Yadav was expelled from the party.
Party sources said while SP chief Mulayam Singh Yadav favours Beni Prasad Verma as party's new leader in the upper house, chief minister Akhilesh Yadav is batting for Naresh Agarwal.
Verma, a veteran who had left the party a decade ago following differences with the chief is being considered due to the failing health of Reoti Raman Singh, the senior-most SP representative in Rajya Sabha.
According to the sources, Akhilesh favours Agarwal as he has been a prominent speaker on behalf of the party in the upper house where he was seen as the number two after Ram Gopal Yadav. Agarwal had also favoured declaring Akhilesh as the chief ministerial candidate during the public feud in the Yadav clan. He had been in Congress and Loktantrik Congress Party before he joined the SP.
With Winter session of Parliament beginning November 16, Yadav is likely to take a final call on the issue next week, the sources said.
The party has 19 members in the upper house and five in the Lok Sabha.