Being painted as villain: Shivpal to Mulayam

New Delhi: The crisis in the Samajwadi Party refused to die down as senior party leader Shivpal Singh Yadav told party supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav that he was being painted as a villain despite following his orders. Shivpal, who is the younger brother of Mulayam, reached Delhi to meet the party chief at his official residence. In his over four-hour-long meeting, Shivpal told Mulayam that in the past four-and-a-half years, he has followed the party supremo's directions despite having difference of opinion on certain issues. Sources close to Shivpal said he gave examples that as a senior minister in the Akhilesh government, he never publicly opposed the decisions taken by Akhilesh or Mulayam even though he may have expressed difference of opinion to them in private.

Later talking to reporters, Shivpal, however, rejected suggestions that there were differences within the party and the Yadav family. "Neither I nor Netaji (Mulayam) is angry. We all are happy... There are no differences," he said. He also said that the decision on Cabinet portfolios are the discretion of the chief minister. "But Netaji has decided to appoint me as the party's state unit chief. My role is to bring back SP to power in next polls. I will fulfill my responsibility...I will not resign...I am still part of the cabinet," he said. He said from re-inducting Amar Singh into the SP to experimenting with the 'Grand Alliance', he had always followed the directions of Mulayam. Still he has been painted as a villain. As the meeting between the Yadav brothers was on, Rajya Sabha MP and media baron Subhash Chandra reached the residence of Mulayam and remained there for nearly two hours. Akhilesh had yesterday shunted out Deepak Singhal as the Uttar Pradesh Chief Secretary after he reportedly attended a party here thrown by Amar Singh to welcome Chandra in Rajya Sabha without the CM's knowledge.