'Akhilesh, my son after all': Mulayam agrees to campaign for SP-Congress alliance

First, he said no.

Now, Mulayam Singh Yadav has had a change of heart and said that he would be campaigning for the Samajwadi Party but only after February 9.

Taking a 180 degree turn from his previous stance of not approving the Congress and Samajwadi Party’s alliance stitched together by his son Akhilesh, Mulayam on Thursday announced that he would campaign for his son, saying, “He is my son after all.”

When asked if he would campaign for the Congress, the SP patriarch was quoted as saying, “They are our ally so why won’t I do it?”

Mulayam had earlier announced that he would not campaign for the SP and Congress in the assembly elections as he does not approve of the alliance. “Samajwadi Party could have won by itself, we do not need Congress’s help,” he had told the media.

The Samajwadi Party has been in trouble over the past few months with its top leadership -- namely Akhilesh, Mulayam, Shivpal and Ram Gopal Yadav -- squabbling for power.

The struggle for power even reached the Election Commission’s door when both the sides of the warring factions demanded that they were the rightful heads of the SP. 

Photographs: Akhilesh Yadav/Facebook.com