Who is Balram Yadav in this grand Yadav family feud?

NEW DELHI: Just who is Balram Yadav in this grand fight within Uttar Pradesh’s most powerful ‘Yadav’ family?

He is the unspoken card that both sides have sought to play in the power feud. For starters, he was the one to get the crucial revenue and cooperative portfolios after Shivpal Yadav was cut to size by Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav.

But few remember that in June he was sacked by Akhilesh as Secondary Education Minister, only to be re-inducted within a week at apparently the intervention of SP ‘Netaji’ Mulayam Singh Yadav. Was Akhilesh trying to placate his father by getting Balram to take over Shivpal’s ministries?

While that did leave tongues wagging, what is also well known is that both Balram and Shivpal have been good friends for years. It was odd, thus, that the main gainer from Shivpal’s fallout with the CM was Balram.

In June, Balram was on the receiving end from CM for his alleged role in the controversial merger of Quami Ekta Dal, a political outfit run by eastern UP’s Ansari borthers—Afzal Ansari, Sibgatullah Ansari and Mukhtar Ansari- with the Samajwadi Party.

Akhilesh was against the alliance due to Mukhtar’s criminal past. So, in a brusque signal of disapproval showed the door to Balram, only to make a comeback within a week. As of now, Balram Yadav is among the most powerful ministers in the Akhilesh government but more importantly, also the card that Akhilesh wanted to play to placate his father.

But Balram too appears to have hedged, just staying on the margins and on the shadows. Even now, when ET reached him, he said: “No comments please, I am busy in a meeting.”