UP must not suffer due to infighting, says SP leader Abu Azmi

Asserting that Uttar Pradesh must not suffer due to infighting within the Mulayam Singh Yadav family, Samajwadi Party leader Abu Azmi on Saturday hoped all issues between Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav and his father and party chief would get resolved soon.

"I pray that the rift within the family caused due to differences over ticket distribution gets resolved and everybody is reunited. Akhilesh should apologise to Netaji (Mulayam) and Netaji should listen to his son's views and end this ticket deadlock. The state should not suffer because of a family in-fight. And, I hope, Mulayam and Akhilesh will jointly fight this election," Azmi told ANI.

Mulayam Singh Yadav expelled Akhilesh and party national general secretary Ram Gopal Yadav from the party for six years late on Friday night.

He said that he took the decision due to the "gross indiscipline" shown by party leaders Ramgopal and Akhilesh by releasing a separate list of candidates for the upcoming state assembly elections.

"To save the party, we have expelled both Ramgopal and Akhilesh Yadav for six years from the party. For us, the party is the most important and our priority is to save the party," he said.

However, Ramgopal termed the decision as "unconstitutional".

"This expulsion is unconstitutional, because within half an hour, we were expelled after serving notice to both of us. If the notice is served, the party usually seeks an explanation, but in this case it did not happen," Ram Gopal told ANI.