Akhilesh, Mulayam are pretending everything's fine, but it's not

Uttar Pradesh chief minister Akhilesh Yadav gave out signals of grabbing the bait thrown by father Mulayam by calling on him at his residence on Tuesday, hours after Mulayam said that, after the state Assembly elections, Akhilesh would be the CM.

One-and-a-half hours of the closed-door meeting between father and son ended with signals that both warring factions of the SP are working on a patch-up formula.

But with conflicting interests on both sides still unresolved, can there be a patch up? 

Akhilesh must be drawing solace from the fact that his father was not flanked by either his brother Shivpal or close aide Amar Singh during the Tuesday meeting.

And this is exactly what he wants - to elbow out the duo from state politics - but will Netaji concede to this demand of his son, especially when he, along with Shivpal and Amar, has already moved the Election Commission to assert their claim over the party symbol of the cycle.

Netaji had earlier indicated that Shivpal would continue to be state president of the party while he himself would stay as national president. 

Akhilesh, after having ousted Amar and elbowed out his uncle Shivpal, may not budge from his stand and allow his father to even think of reinstating them.

The CM has drifted far away from any possible reconciliation. It is widely being understood that he may not yield to Mulayam's demand of giving him the top position back. 

Talks are rife that Akhilesh is about to cobble an alliance with the Congress and his meeting with Rahul Gandhi to ink the seat-sharing formula is slated to take place any day this week.

Earlier, he had already released a list of 235 candidates who would be fighting under his leadership. This was averse to the desire of Netaji but for Akhilesh, the alliance can be a game-changer in the forthcoming elections.

It's learnt that Mulayam exhorted Akhilesh to withdraw the appeal for control of the party's symbol from the Election Commission during Tuesday's meeting.

Both parties have already furnished documented evidence to the commission in this regard. Now it may not be easy for Akhilesh to backtrack at the behest of his father as it would send the wrong signals and would mean loss of face when he is basking in majority support and has already promised tickets to many supporters. 

It's also apparent that Mulayam is also not very keen on keeping Shivpal and Amar marginalised, as per the expectations of Akhilesh. That means both factions, after all their discussions, are again where they started. 

The family feud may well linger despite attempts to sugar-coat the bitterness. 

Also read: 2017 UP assembly election rests on a knife edge