Samajwadi Party patron Mulayam Singh Yadav’s brother Shivpal said in Lucknow on Tuesday that he would not attend traditional Holi festivities this year with his family at Saifai in Etawah.
Holi festivities in native Saifai have been bonding time for the Yadav clan wherein SP leaders, including Shivpal, Akhilesh Yadav, Mulayam Singh, Dharmendra Yadav and others used to assemble and soak in the festival of colours with workers, kin and friends.
Samajwadi Party sources said Akhilesh was also unlikely to go to Saifai to celebrate Holi. They said that Mulayam Singh would, however, follow the tradition and celebrate Holi in his native town, now a tehsil headquarters.
Differences within the Yadav family emerged in 2016, when Mulayam Singh sacked son Akhilesh Yadav as the state SP chief. Then, Mulayam was the national SP president.
In a swift retaliation, Akhilesh divested senior minister and his uncle Shivpal Yadav of important posts. Mulayam Singh ultimately sided with his son even after the humiliating defeat in 2017 Assembly poll.
Though Shivpal Yadav contested the 2017 UP Assembly poll on a Samajwadi Party ticket from Jaswantnagar in Etawah, his nephew and then Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav campaigned against his uncle.
Later, in September, 2018, Shivpal after floating his own party Pragatisheel Samaj Party (Lohia), Shivpal had said: “It’s no longer uncle and nephew and Akhilesh Yadav is just a political rival for me.’’
