Prayagraj (UP), Oct 19 (PTI) Akhilesh Yadav is taking forward Samajwadi Party founder Mulayam Singh Yadav’s legacy, said the party chief’s step-brother Prateek Yadav Wednesday as the family members immersed the veteran politician’s ashes at Sangam, the confluence of three rivers.
At Sangam, Akhilesh Yadav was accompanied by his uncle and Pragatisheel Samajwadi Party chief Shivpal Yadav and Prateek Yadav among others. The same ritual was performed in Haridwar two days ago.
Mulayam Singh Yadav, a three-time chief minister of Uttar Pradesh and a former defence minister died at a private hospital in Gurugram on October 10 at the age of 82.
“Today, the whole country is remembering my father Mulayam Singh Yadav. His political legacy is huge, which Akhilesh ‘bhaiya’ is taking forward,” Prateek Yadav told reporters.
“Netaji has taught us a lot and given us a lot as a father. His teachings will always be with us,” he said but parried any question on improving ties between Akhilesh Yadav and Shivpal Yadav, who fell out after the recent Uttar Pradesh election.
Prateek Yadav is Mulayam Singh Yadav’s son from second wife Sadhna Gupta. He is a businessman and has always maintained a distance from politics. His wife Aparna Yadav, however, broke family ranks and joined the BJP on the eve of Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls earlier this year. Though nobody in the Yadav family is talking about politics in their hour of mourning, speculations are rife in the political circles about whether all of them would come together now or if some of them continue to chart different courses.
Samajwadi Party district president Yogesh Yadav said that Akhilesh Yadav, his son Arjun and daughter Aditi, cousin Dharmendra Yadav, Ram Gopal’s son and Firozabad MP Akshay Pratap, and Tej Pratap, the son-in-law of former Bihar chief minister Lalu Prasad Yadav attended the immersion ritual in Sangam.
Neither Dimple Yadav nor Aparna Yadav, who had participated in the ritual at Haridwar, or any other women members of the family came to Prayagraj.
Notwithstanding their hot and cold political relationship, Akhilesh Yadav and his uncle Shivpal Yadav have been moving together rituals following the death of the Samajwadi Party founder.
The display of a strong family bond in grief has once again rekindled the hope Yadav family reunion, carrying forward the political legacy of Mulayam Singh Yadav.
Earlier, it was speculated that Shivpal Yadav, who of late severed ties with Akhilesh Yadav and sided with the BJP during the Presidential election and was also seen in accompany Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, would enter the bye-election fray from Mainpuri Lok Sabha seat following the death of Mulayam Singh Yadav. PTI RAJ CDN SNS SNS NSD NSD NSD NSD
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