Even though the 2022 UP assembly elections are not far away, the feud that started in the first family of the Samajwadi Party ahead of 2017 UP assembly polls continues unabated. Chacha Shivpal Singh Yadav and bhatija Akhilesh Yadav, on Tuesday, embarked on separate yatras for political mobilisation across the state.
Shivpal Yadav, flaunting soft Hindutva, began his yatra from Vrindavan while Akhilesh adopted a more secular path and started his yatra from Kanpur.
Shivpal had approached his nephew for an alliance between the Samajwadi Party and his Pragatisheel Samajwadi Party (Lohia) but Akhilesh did not respond in the given time frame.
Shivpal Yadav is asking for an alliance with the Samajwadi Party while Akhilesh has offered to not field his party candidate against his uncle from Jaswantnagar assembly constituency in Etawah district. In the last four years, SP patron Mulayam Singh Yadav intervened several times to broker peace but to no avail.
Shivpal said, “There has been no reply from Akhilesh Yadav on an alliance. So, there will be a confrontation in the elections. We have already announced our yatra.”
“No one could kill Dronacharya, Bhishma and Duryodhana, but Shri Krishna was with the Pandavas due to which everything was destroyed,” he said, and added, “Like the Pandavas, we only asked for respect for ourselves and our companions. We have no ambition.”
On Monday, the SP chief had met his father Mulayam Singh Yadav in Delhi to take his blessings before embarking on the Samajwadi Vijay Yatra.
Starting from Kanpur, Akhilesh’s ambitious yatra will travel to Hamirpur and Jalaun in the first phase on October 12-13. The party has issued directions that only SP leaders and workers of the district concerned should attend the yatra and no worker should come from outside.
The Samajwadi Party leaders believe that if Akhilesh and Shivpal join hands for the 2022 UP assembly elections, it will immensely boost the electoral prospects of the Samajwadi Party.
“There has been no substantial performance by Shivpal Yadav since 2017, but if both Shivpal and Akhilesh bury the hatchet then it will help the Samajwadi Party. This is what Mulayam Singh Yadav realises but Akhilesh fails to see. Mulayam Singh Yadav has realised that Akhilesh on his own may not perform that well against the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party without the support of Shivpal Yadav,” said a SP leader.
The Rath Yatra is considered lucky by the Samajwadi Party as whenever Akhilesh Yadav has started the poll campaign with a Yatra it has performed well. In 2012, the SP had formed the government on its own after Akhilesh embarked on a yatra to seek support for the party.
The Samajwadi Vijay Yatra Rath is decorated with pictures of SP patriarch and former chief minister Mulayam Singh Yadav, party MP from Rampur Mohammad Azam Khan, SP leader Ram Gopal Yadav, and party state president Naresh Uttam Patel besides Akhilesh, and is embossed with the slogan ‘Badon Ka Hath Yuva Ka Sath’
