Akhilesh is My Elder Son and I am His Mother, Says Sadhna Yadav

Etawah: Breaking her silence on the Yadav family feud, Mulayam Singh Yadav's wife Sadhna Yadav has sought to end all speculation regarding the divisions within the parivaar.

"The word stepmother which has been used by people is entirely wrong. I do not know who is behind all this, but they are very bad people," Sadhna Yadav said after coming out of the polling booth where she was accompanied by Mulayam's daughter-in-law Aparna Yadav.

The signs of thaw in Mulayam's immediate family were evident in the last one week with both Akhilesh and his wife Dimple Yadav campaigning for Aparna Yadav, who is seeking election from Lucknow Cantt. Aparna is married to Mulayam's second son Prateek and is pitted against BJP's Rita Bahuguna Joshi who had crossed over to the BJP from the Congress just before elections.

"Akhilesh mera bada beta hai aur mein uski maa hun. Koi Sautelapan nahin hai (Akhilesh is my elder son and I am her mother. There is no stepmotherly treatment)," a visibly emotional Sadhana Gupta told reporters.

"Akhilesh and Prateek are my two eyes. How does it feel if one eye is injured," she said.

On being asked about allegations made by SP MLC and Akhilesh aide Udayveer Singh, Sadhna said,"Wo badtameez insaan hein (ill-mannered man). I can not even take his name."

If there were signs of rapprochement in the immediate family, the problems between Akhilesh and uncle Shivpal are anything but over. Shivpal, who generally casts his vote early in the morning, turned up late at the polling booth in Saifai. All through the day he was accompanied by his son Aditya to polling stations across the constituency.

In the evening, Shivpal told media persons that administration worked against him at the behest of someone to damage his prospects.

On being asked if he would be campaigning in the next four phases of the UP polls, Shivpal said he would be taking a call on the issue in the next couple of days.

Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav did not campaign for uncle Shivpal in the elections though he held rallies in nearly all other nearby seats.

Ram Gopal Yadav had earlier in the day sought to clarify CM's absence from campaigning in Jaswantnagar by putting the onus on Shivpal.

"CM's program is decided on the basis of demands made by individual candidates," he said.

This was the most crucial phase of polling for the SP in the seven phase elections for 403 seats in UP. Out of the 69 seats where votes were cast on Sunday, SP in 2012 had swept in this Yadav stronghold by winning 55 seats.