LUCKNOW: A truce remained elusive between warring factions of the Samajwadi Party as the one headed by Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav and Ram Gopal Yadav continued to be defiant even after day-long parleys here on Tuesday.
Refusing to budge, Akhilesh’s faction ruled out possibilities of a thaw in the power struggle when his ‘Chanakya’ Ram Gopal Yadav said that at this stage, talks were meaningless since the issue was pending before the Election Commission to decide which faction was the actual Samajwadi Party.
“There is no scope for any truce. Parleys are now meaningless,” Ram Gopal said. He added that the party symbol — cycle — belonged to Akhilesh’s faction and hoped the EC would give its verdict in their favour. After Mulayam’s return from Delhi on Tuesday, Akhilesh met with him for over three hours, reportedly to narrate his side of the story.
It is believed that the Chief Minister tried to convince Mulayam about his hold on the party by the number of MLAs and MLCs who turned up at the meeting called by him last Saturday and also a large number of delegates present in Janeshwar Mishra Park at the National Convention which anointed him party president on Sunday.