On his birthday, Mulayam tells SP to aim big in 2019

Openly batting for the party he founded, Mulayam Singh Yadav Thursday asked Samajwadi Party workers to create a situation in which no government can be formed at the Centre without its support.

The leader is often seen balancing his relations with son Akhilesh Yadav who now heads the SP and his brother Shivpal Singh Yadav, who has floated a rival party.

Both parties organised separate events Thursday to mark the patriarch's 79th birthday.

"I ask you to fix my programmes at the commissionerate level, I will be there, he told SP office bearers, hinting at his willingness to campaign for the party.

I ask you all to take a pledge that in the days to come, besides forming the government in UP, we have to create such a situation in Delhi that no government can be formed without the SP. This is my request to you," he said at the SP headquarters where he also cut a cake.

Asking SP workers to adopt the habit of reading and writing, he said, There is collection of my speeches in Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha and as a defence minister, and the workers should read them."