Estrangement ends

Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav hosted the birthday celebrations for his father Mulayam Singh Yadav in Lucknow on Wednesday. It was nearly a year after the two shared a stage. Mulayam Singh had been famously upset with his elder son for having tied up with the Congress party for the March 2017 Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections. Interestingly, Shivpal Yadav, Akhilesh’s estranged uncle and Mulayam Singh’s younger brother, was absent at the function to celebrate the patriarch’s 79th birthday. Shivpal, however, tweeted his good wishes to his elder brother. Close family relatives and friends, including Mulayam Singh’s younger son Prateek and