Uttar Pradesh: Mulayam Singh Yadav likely to attend Samajwadi Party conventions

LUCKNOW: Samajwadi Party's state and national conventions will be held in Lucknow on September 28 and 29, respectively. After staying away from the previous party convention held at Agra in 2017, SP patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav is likely to be the chief guest at the national convention.
"Being held just one and a half years before the 2024 elections, the conventions will set the tone for the party's approach towards the polls.The conventions have been announced by party president Akhilesh Yadav," said SP chief spokesperson Rajendra Chaudhary. Though he remained tightlipped on the possibility of Mulayam attending the event, sources said the leadership was likely to invite the veteran politician as the chief guest.
Akhilesh likely to be re-elected SP president unopposed at meet
Mulayam, too, is likely to attend the event, if his health permits. Mulayam had stayed away from the 2017 national convention despite Akhilesh Yadav’s personal invite to him. Mulayam’s absence had then sent a clear message that the SP founder was unhappy with the way Akhilesh, who was then UP CM, had replaced him as the party president at a special emergency party convened earlier in the year.
That was perhaps the only party convention that Mulayam had missed since the formation of SP in October 1992. In the 2017 convention, Naresh Uttam Patel had replaced Shivpal Yadav as the party state president. “The situation now is completely different. The entire party needs Netaji’s (Mulayam) blessing because it is his party. He had founded it,” said a senior SP functionary, adding that Mulayam Singh is “The Leader” of SP on the party’s official website and will always remain so.
Around 10,000 delegates are likely to attend the state and national conventions where the party will elect its national and state presidents. Sources said Akhilesh Yadav is likely to be re-elected unopposed as the party national president for another term of five years. State president Naresh Uttam Patel is likely to be re-elected as the state president. Earlier the state and national presidents were elected for a period of three years but in 2017, when Akhilesh Yadav took over the reins of the party, the term of the two posts was extended to five years through an amendment in the SP constitution.
Party’s principal national general secretary Ram Gopal Yadav will present the economic and political resolutions of the party at the conventions and oversee the elections of the SP national and state chiefs.