Lucknow, Jan. 2: Mulayam Singh Yadav today said he was still the leader of the Samajwadi Party and his son echoed this, but both set out to hand the Election Commission affidavits claiming their rights over the party.

"The Samajwadi Party is legally mine. I'm fine today. The party is with me. The cycle (the party's election symbol) is with the Samajwadi Party," Mulayam told reporters before leaving for Delhi, where he submitted his affidavit to the poll panel.

Chief minister Akhilesh Yadav, who had yesterday replaced Mulayam as party national president at a disputed "national convention", remained deferential to his father.

He told his MLAs and Assembly poll candidates to chant slogans in support of Netaji (Mulayam), whom he has declared party "patron", during their campaign.

The Election Commission is expected to receive Akhilesh's counter affidavit tomorrow from his principal adviser Ram Gopal Yadav, the party general secretary and Rajya Sabha member who had called yesterday's convention.

Earlier in the morning, Mulayam's younger brother and Akhilesh's rival Shivpal Yadav, unseated as state Samajwadi president at yesterday's convention, had tweeted the cancellation of the counter national convention Mulayam had called on January 5.

"The January 5 national convention of Samajwadi Party postponed for the time being on the direction of Netaji," the tweet read.

Sources close to Akhilesh suggested Shivpal had acted unilaterally to avoid embarrassment, realising he could not muster the numbers at the convention.

"Netaji had not come out of his bedroom; he had neither met anybody nor picked up his phone when Shivpal posted his first tweet in the morning," a source said. "This indicates he is taking important decisions without taking Netaji into confidence."

Akhilesh had yesterdayhinted Mulayam had been clearing Shivpal's moves against him without vetting them.

"You can forget me but never forget Netaji during your campaign," he told his supporters today, as quoted by Urmila Rajpoot, Akhilesh's candidate for the Charkhari seat. "You must chant slogans for him because he is our inspiration. You must win your seats to make Netaji proud of us."

Shivpal had left for Delhi two hours before Mulayam to meet lawyers, draft a letter and prepare the affidavit to be handed to the poll panel.

Sometime later, Rajya Sabha member Amar Singh, suspended from the party yesterday at Akhilesh's convention, arrived in Delhi from London.

"I didn't beg anybody for a Rajya Sabha seat. Mulayam offered it to me because I'm in his heart. The party is not important for me but I shall feel sorry if Mulayam removes me from his heart," he said.

Kiranmoy Nanda, who had presided over yesterday's convention in his capacity as party national vice-president but was later suspended by Mulayam, said: "Amar Singh has returned to India to ensure that Mulayam's heart is broken completely."