Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav with wife Dimple Yadav, Rajya Sabha MP Jaya Bachchan, Uncle Shivpal Singh Yadav and others attended a dinner party hosted for party members at Taj hotel in Lucknow.

After a scare for Mayawati, the SP lawmakers who had skipped the meeting in the morning arrived hours later for the dinner hosted by party chief Akhilesh Yadav, NDTV reported.

The lawmakers, led by Shivpal Yadav, said they would vote for the SP and Mayawati's Bahujan Samaj Party in the upcoming Rajya Sabha polls.

This was Shivpal Yadav's first public appearance with his nephew Akhilesh in over a year.

They also sat next to each other for most of the dinner, chatting and posing for the cameras.

The only legislator who skipped both meetings was Nitin Agrawal, the son of Naresh Agrawal, who quit the SP and shifted to the BJP recently.

Agrawal Junior was, however, seen at a meeting of Bharatiya Janata Party leaders, described as a 'dry-run' for the Rajya Sabha election.  -- Agencies

Photograph: ANI