Feud with uncle sarkari, not personal: Akhilesh

Akhilesh Yadav PIC/PTI

Akhilesh Yadav PIC/PTI

Lucknow: Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav on Wednesday said his conflict with uncle Shivpal Singh Yadav was a "sarkari ladai" (government battle), not a family feud.

Speaking at his official residence here, Akhilesh Yadav said: "This is a tussle in the government, not the family." The Chief Minister quickly added that he always did what Samajwadi Party leader and his father Mulayam Singh Yadav told him to do.

"I generally go by what Netaji tells me but, yes, I do take some decisions on my own," he said, in an apparent explanation of his action of late Tuesday when he divested Shivpal Yadav of plum portfolios.

Dogged by differences
The Mulayam family has been dogged by serious differences but matters reached a flash point Tuesday after the Chief Minister shunted out Chief Secretary Deepak Singhal, considered as his uncle Shivpal Yadav's favourite.

In a tit-for-tat action, Mulayam took away the post of UP Samajwadi Party chief from his son Akhilesh, perhaps to pacify Shivpal.

But, within hours a peeved chief minister hit back by clipping his uncle's wings, divesting him of his key PWD, Irrigation and Cooperative portfolios.