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Letter saying free to leave alliance speaks of SP chief’s ‘political immaturity’: Shivpal Yadav
Taking a swipe at Samajwadi Party (SP) national president Akhilesh Yadav, his uncle and Pragatisheel Samajwadi Party (Lohia) president Shivpal Singh Yadav on Tuesday said his “political immaturity” led to the SP’s defeat in the 2022 Uttar Pradesh assembly elections
Taking a swipe at Samajwadi Party (SP) national president Akhilesh Yadav, his uncle and Pragatisheel Samajwadi Party (Lohia) president Shivpal Singh Yadav on Tuesday said his “political immaturity” led to the SP’s defeat in the 2022 Uttar Pradesh assembly elections.
This was Shivpal’s first public reaction after the Samajwadi Party, in a letter, told him that he was free to go wherever he thought he would get more respect, an apparent jibe at his growing proximity with the BJP.
This is the second time this month that Shivpal has called Akhilesh politically immature and held him responsible for the party not returning to power in the state in 2022 U.P. polls.
The SP had also shot a similar letter to another ally Suheldev Bhartiya Samaj Party (SBSP) president Om Prakash Rajbhar.
“I came to know about the letter from the Samajwadi Party only through the media. It is indicative of his political immaturity and nothing else. It would have been better had I been expelled from the party and the legislature party. You have seen where the party was and where it has reached now. Had that maturity been there, the party would have formed its government in 2022, and Akhilesh would have been the chief minister,” he said while talking to newspersons in Lucknow.
“It would have been better had I been given ‘mukti’ from the party. When such letters are being written to me, I am not invited to the legislature party meetings or my suggestions are not accepted, there would have been no heartburn if given mukti,” he added.
By ‘mukti’, Shivpal meant ousting him from the party or the legislature party. Though SP had not been recognising Shivpal as part of the party, Shivpal had been insisting that he is SP MLA and technically a part of the SP legislature party. Shivpal had contested the recent state polls on an SP ticket and won from his traditional Jaswant Nagar seat in the Etawah district.
Shivpal comparing Akhilesh with the party founder Mulayam Singh Yadav said that he (Akhilesh) lacks Netaji’s (Mulayam) quality of taking everyone along.
In a letter on the party’s Twitter handle on Saturday, the SP had said, “Honourable Shivpal Singh Yadav, if you feel you will get more respect somewhere, you are free to go there.”
The development came after Shivpal and Rajbhar supported the National Democratic Alliance’s (NDA) presidential candidate Draupadi Murmu, who defeated Yashwant Sinha, the opposition nominee, also supported by the SP.
This is the second time Shivpal has called Akhilesh politically immature this month.
Before this, on July 9, while pledging his support to Murmu, Shivpal, for the first time, said “but for Akhilesh’s political immaturity, the SP would have been governing the state.” Akhilesh is Mulayam’s son, while Shivpal is Mulayam’s younger brother.
The “Chacha-Bhatija” had patched up ahead of the 2022 Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls at the behest of party patron Mulayam Singh Yadav.
However, the bonhomie between the two did not last long, and they drifted apart after suffering a defeat at the hands of the BJP.
In 2018, Shivpal had formed his party, Pragatisheel Samajwadi Party (Lohia), after being sidelined by Akhilesh.
When asked about Rajbhar, Shivpal said, “I have not yet had any talk in this regard though I have had a courtesy meeting with him.”
Shivpal, however, appeared soft on senior SP leader Azam Khan, saying, “I will stand by him whenever required.”
The relationship between Azam Khan, the Muslim face of the SP since the days of Mulayam Singh Yadav, and Akhilesh too has hit a rough patch since the assembly elections.
On issues concerning the minorities, Shivpal said, “We have always raised their issues and will continue to raise them whenever required.”
