Former Uttar Pradesh chief minister and Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav was on Thursday unanimously re-elected as the party’s national president for five years. This was announced by senior SP leader Ram Gopal Yadav at the SP national convention in Agra.
A report by Press Trust of India said that the party’s constitution too was amended to extend the tenure of the party chief to five years from the existing three years.
Now that 44-year-old Akhilesh will remain at the helm for five years, the 2019 Lok Sabha and state Assembly elections in 2022 will be held under his presidentship.
This comes just days after it was widely speculated that Mulayam Singh Yadav, Akhilesh’s father, will float a new party due differences with his son. Mulayam had later denied stating that he was not going to form a new party or political front as was being speculated.
Both father and son were locked in a bitter war during this year’s assembly polls when Akhilesh openly cancelled the list of candidates announced by Mulayam while also meting out public humiliation to his another uncle Shivpal Yadav.