SP calls off merger with Qaumi Ekta Dal, Balram Yadav to be inducted back in UP Cabinet

Lucknow: In what may come as a major shock to gangster-turned-politician Mukhtar Ansari and his Qaumi Ekta Dal (QEM), the party's merger with the ruling Samajwadi Party (SP) has been cancelled. Senior Samajwadi Party leader Ram Gopal Yadav on Saturday announced this news to the media. He also said that Uttar Pradesh Minister Balram Yadav, who was sacked by Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav, apparently for facilitating merger, will also be taken into the state cabinet. The merger of the two parties was announced on June 21 by Samajwadi Party spokesman and senior Cabinet Minister Shipal Yadav, who is brother of Akhilesh's father and party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav. Akhilesh Yadav had on Thursday dismissed speculation that he was unhappy with the party embracing gangster-turned-politician Mukhtar Ansari's party, saying there is 'no displeasure' and it is an internal matter of their party. "Merger of Qaumi Ekta Dal (QED) with SP is an internal matter of Samajwadi Party," Yadav told reporters after a meeting of the state cabinet here. "There is no displeasure. This is all media creation," he said replying to queries on the issue.