Samajwadi Party patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav will campaign for his brother Shivpal Yadav first and then go to seek votes for candidates announced by his son and Uttar Pradesh chief minister Akhilesh Yadav.
The former three-time chief minister told reporters that on February 9, he will go to Jaswant Nagar in Etawah and seek people’s support for Shivpal.
Mulayam and Shivpal were locked in a six-month family feud with Akhilesh over control of the party. Akhilesh eventually emerged the winner and took over as the party’s national president, dislodging his father from the post.
Mulayam had also expressed unhappiness when Akhilesh sewed up an alliance with the Congress for the polls.
He declared in Delhi last week that not only he did not support the alliance but will also ask the party cadre to contest against all the 105 Congress candidates in the state.
However, within two days, Mulayam took a U-turn and said, “Akhilesh has my blessings, I will campaign for him.”
Akhilesh had sacked Shivpal as the party’s state chief on January 1, the same day when the chief minister took over the party, but he still gave his uncle the ticket to contest from his Jaswant Nagar constituency.
{{/usCountry}}Akhilesh had sacked Shivpal as the party’s state chief on January 1, the same day when the chief minister took over the party, but he still gave his uncle the ticket to contest from his Jaswant Nagar constituency.
{{/usCountry}}Meanwhile, Shivpal has been canvassing alone.
Not even on the day of his nomination did he have any big politician with him. Mulayam, thus, took the decision to go to Jaswant Nagar and campaign for him.