Lucknow: A video clip from 2017 has come back to haunt the Samajwadi Party, which is portraying itself as Uttar Pradesh's main challenger to the ruling BJP. The Uttar Pradesh BJP has now published a video that illustrates the infighting that occurred in the Samajwadi Party soon before the 2017 Assembly elections.

'Aisa koi saga nahi jise Akhilesh ne thaga nahi,' a 1.5-minute film, presents Akhilesh as the all-powerful SP leader who inherited power and position. The movie includes a clip from the SP's national executive, which Mulayam summoned on October 24, 2016, to bring the party's warring factions together on one dais. A 15-second image in the video shows Akhilesh taking the microphone from Mulayam, despite the efforts of party MLC Ashu Malik to stop him.

"Jin Akhilesh ji ko unke pita ne satta dilwayi thi unke hi saath unhone ye durvyavhaar kiya tha.... (Akhilesh misbehaved with his own father who given him the power)" says a voice in the background. Following the incident, the party split vertically, with Shivpal Yadav founding his own Pragatisheel Samajwadi Party Lohia (PSPL). Shivpal and Akhilesh's feud has persisted to this day.

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