Amidst frenzied speculations over a patch up between Shivpal Singh Yadav and his nephew and Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav, the former stressed that he had formed a separate outfit, the Pragatisheel Samaj Party (Lohia), on the advice of Netaji (Mulayam Singh Yadav) in 2017.
“I had formed the PSPL on Netaji’s advice. He called up Akhilesh to sit with me to resolve the differences and when he (Akhilesh) didn’t turn up and refused to answer his phone call, Netaji asked me to form a new party. I had met Netaji a week back in Delhi. He expressed his wish that we reunite and fight the election together. I asked him to call Akhilesh and make him understand. Netaji said that if he takes my advice then it’s good otherwise I will campaign for you,” Shivpal said on Tuesday.
In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, Shivpal Yadav had contested from Firozabad constituency and polled around 91,000 votes. Though Shivpal came third, he was able to split enough votes from Samajwadi Party so that the party’s incumbent Member of Parliament Akshay Yadav lost the election by a margin of 28,000 votes.
In September, gangster-turned-politico Mukhtar Ansari’s elder brother Sibakatullah Ansari joined the Samajwadi Party. Interestingly, one of the reasons why Akhilesh Yadav and Shivpal Yadav clashed in 2016 was that the latter was trying to induct Sibakatullah into the party while the former opposed the move. “I was against the induction of Mukhtar Ansari because he had a criminal record. But his two brothers didn’t have such a past. I was only trying to get them into the party,” Shivpal clarified.
The PSPL chief further said that his primary goal was to fight the upcoming assembly elections in alliance with the SP but Akhilesh Yadav needed to speak to him to thrash out some nitty-gritty.
On the question of some outsiders creating differences between the two leaders, Shivpal Yadav said, “Akhilesh should learn from Netaji on how to clear the air even with opponents directly rather than relying on those who are trying to split the family.’’
