Shivpal desperate for alliance
Marginalised in Uttar Pradesh politics after his estrangement with Samajwadi Party and the drubbing in the recent parliamentary elections, Shivpal Singh Yadav, who heads the Pragatisheel Samajwadi Party (Lohia) seems to be desperate to regain lost ground.
On Tuesday, Shivpal Yadav reiterated his desire to forge an alliance with the Samajwadi Party led by nephew Akhilesh Yadav for the UP Assembly elections to be held in 2022.
Shivpal, the younger brother of SP patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav, indicated that his party could form an alliance with the SP for the UP Assembly polls, but ruled out returning to the Samajwadi Party.
Talking to reporters here, Shivpal said, “When elections are around, there will be talks of an alliance but we will not go back to Samajwadi Party. We will talk to those who want to ally with us.”
Shivpal Yadav had contested the 2017 UP Assembly election on Samajwadi Party ticket and is MLA from Jaswant Nagar constituency in Etawah district. He is still the SP MLA as he has neither resigned from the membership of the Assembly nor has the SP sought his disqualification from the membership of the Assembly.
Shivpal’s statement comes after Mulayam Singh Yadav made efforts to bring the estranged uncle and nephew together after the SP suffered a rout in the recently-concluded Lok Sabha elections.
Three members of the Yadav clan — Dimple Yadav, Dharmendra Yadav and Akshay Yadav — lost the election and the party’s tally in Lok Sabha was reduced to five.
Post-Lok Sabha polls, the Bahujan Samaj Party has snapped its alliance with the SP and has announced to contest all elections, even UP Assembly bypolls, on its own. The BSP has rapped the SP for its “anti-Dalit policies”. Akhilesh Yadav, on his part, has shown no inclination to build bridges with uncle Shivpal Yadav.
Senior leaders in the SP feel that if the two leaders join hands, the party will gain some strength and revive itself to large extent.
Sources in the SP say that Akhilesh Yadav is under pressure to set the house in order first and then plan for future political action.
“If Akhilesh Yadav wants the party to stand on its feet and become capable of facing the electorate in the upcoming by-elections to 12 UP Assembly seats, he must give serious consideration to his father’s advice to end the discord in the family,” said a SP leader.
“If the family remains divided, then only a bleak future awaits us. We are not in a position to face fourth defeat in 2022 UP Assembly election and continue to exist,” the SP leader said.
