BAREILLY: Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav on Tuesday dissolved the Bareilly district and city units of the party. Sources in the party said Akhilesh was “angry” with the units after Veerpal Yadav, a Mulayam-Shivpal loyalist, and a few former MLAs had alleged that they were not getting “respect” in the party.Akhilesh first issued a letter on Tuesday afternoon to announce dissolution of the Bareilly district unit and later in the evening, he dissolved the city unit of the party. The district unit had 51 members, including district president Shubhlesh Yadav, while city unit comprised 31 members, including city president Kadir Ahmed.According to senior party leaders who did not wish to be named, Akhilesh had been receiving complaints from senior party leaders of Bareilly for nearly a year that they were not getting respect in the party. They told TOI that as Akhilesh was angry with the complaints, he decided to dissolve the units.The rift in the party unit was evident for some time with a few senior SP leaders, including former MLAs, maintaining distance from party events and would rarely visit the party office. In fact, two groups within party unit had been organizing their separate protests. In February, the timings of protests in the city of these two groups had clashed.Even when Veerpal Yadav had tendered his resignation to Akhilesh on October 10, he had leveled the allegation that he wasn’t getting “respect” in the party and was not backed by SP leaders after an FIR was lodged against him for hurting religious sentiments. Thirty-eight of his supporters had also quit along with him.Two days after his resignation, Veerpal had joined Shivpal Yadav’s Samajwadi Secular Morcha (SSM). He had urged SP workers that if they are not getting respect, they should join the SSM.Veerpal was removed from the post of SP district president in February last year.Bhagwat Saran Gangwar, former state minister, said, “I will ask Veerpal to return to SP now. The issue of Veerpal not receiving respect in SP is now over.”Meanwhile, Veerpal refused to comment on the matter.Party’s national spokesperson Ata-ur-Rehman said, “The dissolution of party units is a normal process. The party chief will constitute new units focusing on Lok Sabha elections of 2019.”Former Bareilly district secretary and spokesperson Haider Ali said, “We accept the decision of Akhilesh Yadav ji.”

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