SP Appoints Akhilesh as UP Unit Chief to Attract Youth

Following his party’s drubbing performance in recently concluded Lok Sabha polls, SP chief Mulayam Singh Yadav has appointed his som Akhilesh Yadav as the UP party chief in a bid to revive and revamp the state unit.

SP general secretary Ram Gopal Yadav told media persons that Akhilesh, 36, replaces Mulayam’s brother Shivpal Yadav as state unit chief. Akhilesh had contested the Lok Sabha elections from Kanauj and Ferozabad and won both the seats.

Ram Gopal, the elder brother of the SP chief, said that appointment of Akhilesh would send a message that the party want to encourage youth.

“It is the young people who do most of the work for a party, be it during campaign or in mobilising people,” he said.

The terms of the state general secretary and former Ghazipur MP, Om Prakash Singh has also been extended. Seeking to woo Muslims, many of whom drifted from the party after Kalyan Singh left the party. The SP appointed Rashid Masood as a member of the Parliamentary Board. Masood is an MP from Saharanpur.

The SP won 23 of the 80 Lok Sabha seats in Uttar Pradesh this time against 36 in 2004 — 35 in UP and one in Uttarakhand.